DKos Tour Series: Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico

Prologue: Arizona's Wupatki NM, which I recently posted a diary on same (http://www.dailykos.com/...), but slipped fairly rapidly through the Recent Diary list, reminded me of a complimentary contrast, if you will, to living style and quarters. Thus the subject title of today's diary, on Bandelier. We'll be headed west out of Santa Fe and fairly close to a locale where more Ph.D's live and work than anywhere on the planet. Can you guess the name of this town? (Here's a hint: Its work force of scientific Mensa types was responsible for making the biggest and loudest and brightest explosion of all time, at a place called Trinity.) Anyway, this upcoming tour is about a unique geologic setting the Ancestral Puebloans found ideal for settlement, mainly by fashioning apartments in readymade caves. They also selected a region where wildlife was abundant, as well as year-round water coursing through their expansive settlement. If you love hiking, then you are sure to love Bandelier's stunning setting and this archeological repository of dwellings and ruins.

Location/Geography: New Mexico, in Sandoval, Los Alamos, and Santa Fe Counties. Nearest city: Los Alamos (and fairly close to Santa Fe). Area: 33,677 acres. Monument entrance elevation about 6,500 feet. Located in the Santa Fe National Forest.

Spotlight: Human habitation for over 10,001 years. Geology ideal for cave dwelling (tuff, from volcanic ash). Bandelier's heyday (occupation), from 1151 to 1351. The big adventure here is to climb to Alcove House high above the canyon floor by way of wooden ladders, then climb down into a reconstructed kiva built inside the cave (not for the unwary).

Snapshot: Bandelier's main attraction is Frijoles Canyon. Its setting features a number of pueblo homes, kivas and petroglyphs. Some of these Ancestral Puebloan dwellings are structures built on the canyon floor, while others are alcoves high in the canyon wall. These sizable openings, called cavates, were later enlarged by humans. This rugged and arid landscape maintained an indigenous population that lived along the streams in the canyons, and in some cases on mesa tops above them. The Rito de los Frijoles ("Bean Creek") in Frijoles Canyon runs nearly year-round, while most canyons have seasonal streams that dry up during parts of the year.