Day ten in New Mexico is our final day other than traveling from Albuquerque to Nashville on day eleven. But day ten was a fabulous adventure! We slept late because we were out so late the previous night. But when we woke up we showered, ate breakfast, and headed out to Los Alamos, NM to see the Bandelier National Monument. Here are a few pics taken out of my car window on the way to Bandelier. Can you tell I’m in love with the rock formations and the mountains?
Bandelier was absolutely spectacular. It holds over 70 miles of trails, thousands of archeological sites, diverse wildlife, and native plants. Scott and I started out walking the main paved loop trail which is a 1.2 miles round-trip trial that took us to three seperate cavates with access by short ladders. The cavates and the side of the mountains had hundreds of petroglyphs as well. Here is some of the beauty seen along this trail.
The cliff dwellings at Bandelier were magnificent! I can’t begin to explain them. You just have to visit them if you ever get the chance. I’m telling you… this place should truly be considered among the wonders of the world. Here in a few of these shots, you can see people climbing the wooden ladders into some of these dwellings. Pay attention to how high these mountains really are in some of these shots because toward the end of the photos, you will see where we have climbed 140 feet up the side of a mountain.
We also walked another trail that was an additional mile round-trip. This trail lead to an Archeological site called the Alcove House, accessed by a 140 foot climb on a set of four wooden ladders to a reconstructed Kiva atop of one of these rocks. Sounds easy enough, right? WRONG! Getting up was the easy part. You simply climb a ladder or four. But coming down… well… let’s just say that I had a come-apart! I seriously freaked out! There were no safety harnesses or anything. There wasn’t even a guide to help you. You are seriously on your own. I’ve never considered myself scared of heights. But when you are carrying a backpack that weighs about 100 pounds with a tripod connected to it, you get a little off-balance. So when I saw the sign, it didn’t scare me. But I sure got scared coming down.
The Alcove House is a cave that was used for ceremonial purposes. As many as 23 rooms, some two stories high, were discovered atop of the Alcove House cave.
The view from within the Alcove House (did I mention it is a 140 foot climb into the air?) was spectacular! There are areas around the cave where gardens were grown for food. The cave contains a kiva that you can climb down into. Scott didn’t walk around very much up here. He actually sat down when he reached the top, and didn’t get up again until it was time to descend.
We were a good 1.5 miles away from our truck by the time we descended the ladders. It got dark very quickly. We were the only hikers left in the park that’s for sure. We heard funny animal sounds on our way back to the truck… but we didn’t look back long enough to see what was making the sounds. We were ready to get up out there.
Bandelier was was fabulous! If I ever make it back to New Mexico… I’m definitely going back to Bandelier. There are many other trails that I wanted to walk, including one that has a waterfall. My guess is… waterfalls are not very common in the southwest.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts about our trip to New Mexico. This concludes the New Mexico adventures. And since I am actually a wedding photographer, maybe I will post a wedding next. LOL! Thank you all for being patient with me during my adventure blogging stage!
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