Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Bandelier National Monument



 Hi everyone. Today I have a travel post for you and no art. Since Monday, I've been spending time in catch up mode at work and still have a huge pile of papers to grade from missing 3 days last week. They will get done, eventually. But I do feel I have to keep chipping away at them, so when I get home, it's late and the studio has been ignore. (Sad face for me.)
But let me show you Bandelier National Monument just outside of Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Bandelier is down in the canyon you can see from above in this top photo.
And then we'll jump down into the canyon floor (well not literally jump).

 These canyon walls were the homes of many ancestral Pueblo people from 1150-1550. The people were farmers and had an active trading life with peoples all the way south to Central America.
They were also great masons and built structures of which you can see the ruins of here.
 But their homes were mostly up along and into these sandstone canyon walls.
 Some of the cavern areas are still there and the National Park Service put in some ladders so you could climb inside. These were fairly low opening and the ladder maybe had 7-8 steps up.
 Here is a reconstruction to show what they would have been like. One thing this doesn't show is how people entered their homes. They would climb up and enter through the roofs.  That way there they could pull up the ladders to help protect them if not so friendly people came into the area. I think the window here was just added so people look inside and see.

  Here's one you can't climb into but if you looks you can see fire staining. These people would have mall fires inside to heat, give light and cook their food.
 The path went up along the cliff face (not all the way to the top). Looking down you can see the remains of a round structure, perhaps a sacred kiva, their religious places that were underground.
 Some more house views.

 And in this photo below, you can see the row of holes were the support logs (called vigas I think) would have been.
 And some fire blackened remains of a ceiling.
 These people would build their rooms one on top of the other.
 You can see these all along the cliff face.
And after viewing these, we took another trail that took us to the high sacred kiva cave. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago in my T day post. Parts of the trail still had a bit of snow.

 And here's a view of the cave from the ground. Its is the large oval dark area on the right.
 Here's some close ups.

I don't like heights but I had to go up and say I did it. Going up wasn't too bad, but going down was really really scary. And I think I mentioned that 2 weeks ago in my T day post. But here's the inside of the cave.
 That round structure coming up is a scared religious kiva. We couldn't go in but you would crawl down through the covered hole on the top .
And here's the hubby and myself. We had some people snap out photo for us.

 Hiking to this cave we also saw a lot of mule deer.


You can tell this is a place where they know they are safe as they were really close and didn't show a lot of fear of people. 
We visited some other sights with a similar (but no the same) idea which I will show you another day.
Hope you enjoyed your visit.

15 comments:

Natalia said...

Wow,amazing place, so beautiful! Love the pics, have a lovely day☺

Valerie-Jael said...

Fantastic pictures. That is a place I would love to visit. Thanks for sharing. Sorry you still have so much school work to catch up on, that's life! Have a great day, hugs, Valerie

Jeanie said...

You are more intrepid than I. I would have given that trip a pass. I'm not sure I could make it up the ladders with my vertigo much less fit through the door. So I say WELL DONE!

CJ Kennedy said...

So cool to take a trip with you from my comfy chair and a cup of tea at hand! That looks so cool! I'm not sure I would have braved the climb. Good on you!

Oh, and a suggestion for grading papers. You can get them done quickly. Take your paper stack, either throw them up a flight of stairs or down. Those papers on top get an A, middle a C and at the bottom a failing grade. Easy peasy. 😉😺

froebelsternchen said...

Fantastic impression Erika! Thank you for sharing with us!
Big hugs,
Susi

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

This was incredibly fascinating. The photos were wonderful, the information was informative, and your bravery is beyond reproach. I am SO afraid of heights, you would NEVER catch me climbing that wall. These were quite impressive and I learned something about these native Americans, too.

Iris Flavia said...

Amazing to see how people lived back then!
LOL and in the end we still live a bit like that, too (thank you stomping neighbour from above!).

Yes, I´m with you, up is manageable but down....
The deer are cute!
Great post, thank you for the read!

craftytrog said...

Great photos Erika! I remember seeing similar dwellings in Turkey, I find them fascinating. You were brave with the climbing.
Alison xx

Mrs.B said...

Great pictures Erika, sounds like a very interesting place.
Avril xx

nwilliams6 said...

Thanks for sharing these pictures. I grew up in Albuquerque and we visited this site several times. I was always bored when we went (I was young) and hurried through as fast as my Mom would let me - now wish I had paid more attention and I totally understand her fascination.

Divers and Sundry said...

What an exciting trip! Amazing that they have it so that you can enter the caves. Thanks for the virtual trip, though I'd love to make that climb in real life :)

Words and Pictures said...

What an incredible place to live and worship... and to visit. Thank you for sharing the spectacular views and the amazing experience.
Alison x

Let's Art Journal said...

Fabulous photos! It's such an amazing place and it looks like you had fun exploring 😁. Thanks for sharing your holiday adventures! Take care and happy wishes! Hugs, Jo x

pearshapedcrafting said...

Fabulous photos! Glad I didn't miss this ...almost did! Chrisx

Stevenson Q said...

Sceneries such as these never fail to amaze me dear Erika! Thank you for sharing these because the Philippines do not have them :) Love your photo on the hole!