Sept 13, Monday Our 45-mile jaunt today landed us in Bandelier National Monument. “Discovered” by Anthropologist Adolph Bandelier in 1880, it has been a home to ancestral Pueblo people from 1150 CE to 1550 CE and has shown human presence going back 11,000 years. Their culture was remarkable with farming, hunting, pottery-making, textile-making from yucca-fiber and turkey feathers, and weaving. Their homes were built in the Frijoles Canyon valley with adobe walls that are very visible today and/or up in the sheer cliffs where they carved sleeping and storage rooms. They were occupied at the same time and the choice to live in the caves or in the canyon bottom may have been based on family, clan customs, or simply individual preference! The charge at the gate to enter was $25 . . . our Golden Passport passes made it free! The Visitor’s Center was shut down (due to Covid), but rangers stood outside to answer questions and sell a $2 tour map of the 1 ¼ mile Main Loop Trail and the 21 informative stops along the way. The hiking started out nicely paved with a gradual incline, followed by more strenuous ascent, a dirt path, a wooden-plank bridge, narrow stone stairs leading up to the cliff dwellings, and ladders that give access to some of the rooms. This Kiva was probably the center of the community for religious activities, education, and decision-making. It was covered by a roof made of earth and wood. The walls of homes could be seen and at one time there were over 400 rooms for about 100 people. The walls were plastered on the outside over the adobe brick. Access to all of this was through a single ground-level opening and the "apartment" complex was 2 stories high! Surrounding the whole structure was a stone wall covered with smooth-plastered mud. The construction techniques are thought to show knowledge brought from distant places. At some point the nice walking path turned into a series of steep stone stairs that curled up and around the rock cliffs and chasms. Once up, we reached the rooms that had been carved out of the mountain face. The cliffside itself, due to the soft rock called Tuff, was full of honeycombed holes that simply needed enlarging! There are ladders going up to several of the rooms that can be climbed to see the interior. Tom reported that the room had a hole in the center and a smoke-charred roof. Some of the rooms could be viewed from the walking-path level; they were not especially big, but several seemed to have doors inside the outside opening. At this high-point of the carved rooms, we walked along a cliff that had many carved petroglyphs. Some of them were so high that it was hard to lean back and take a picture – but we did manage a few. This first petroglyph was labeled as a "Macaw (parrot)" in the tour guide (really???) Other than that, the interpretation of the other petroglyphs was left up to our own imaginations. The walk wound down back onto the valley floor and we ended up at the Visitor’s Center again, completely amazed with what all we had seen at Bandelier National Monument. We stopped at a Sonic drive-in for a quick bite to eat, and were back at the Silvermine by 1:30. We spent time cleaning up the trailer, and ourselves before heading back down to the Plaza for one more evening. We had enjoyed our outdoor restaurant (on Burro Alley) so much that we headed back there for supper. On a Monday night who would have thought it would be busy and the there would be a guitarist performing! Those that know us will agree that it is not often we are out on the town after dark . . . . but we were still there as the Plaza lit up!
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October 2021
We don’t go camping any more . . . we go ‘streamin’ ! The “SIlvermine and His” is our 2018 25' Airstream Serenity with Salsa interior and front twin beds., and ‘streamin’ is the name we use to describe our adventures. Stream along as we document everything from weekend trips to longer summer excursions and full-blown vacations. You know what they say: if you’re not in an Airstream – you’re just camping!
Tom & Ella Brown |