Bandelier National Monument in northern New Mexico is one of the premier attractions for visitors to Santa Fe and provides spectacular scenery and vantage points as well as a look into distant, ancient times when native North American peoples inhabited the area.
You can climb into wooden cavates which are small, in some instances tiny dwellings hand carved into the rock face and sheltered the native Indians for thousands of years prior to the discovery of America by the Europeans in the 15th century. You need to have some adventurous spirit to make the climb and the activity is not for the feint hearted nor those who have an issue dealing with heights but the climb up the ten foot ladders into the cavates is definitely worth it!
If you prefer to have your feet firmly on the ground, you can enjoy the walking and hiking trails of Frijoles Canyon and explore the labyrinthine passages and rock stairways as you cross the footfalls of native Americans dating back 10,000 years. For the very best views though, you will need to make the climbs into the cavates which will reward you with exhilarating scenery with the Frijoles Canyon as the centerpiece.
Don’t expect to find much standing room in a cavates, they are of low height and very cramped – a real efficiency apartment in fact but this is to be expected as they were hewn from the rock by hand with no power tools or blasting equipment around a 1,000 years ago by the ancestral pueblo people who made a life hunting and gathering in the surrounding area.
Alcove House is located about 14 stories off the ground and is accessed only by a series of wooden ladders which are fixed into the rock face with 30 foot ladders and no safety net. Not only is there no safety net, there is no supervision and you can visit to enjoy the peace and quiet completely alone but with such a sheer drop, the risk is very real so make sure you pack an extra portion of courage at breakfast when you visit. Alcove House rewards visitors with a view into how around 25 people lived in this cave which is larger than most of the other dwellings, but imagine what it must have been like to carry the groceries up to the lofty home.
Nearby Bandelier provides the usual base for visitors to the area with hotels and lodgings and a range of convenience and outdoors stores for those who are hiking around the seventy miles of trails for those who don’t have a head for heights. The scenery is spectacular in its setting in the Jemez Mountains, formed around 1 million years ago by a series of volcanic eruptions and eroded down into stark mountainous terrain surrounded by desert. Remember the climate is hot and arid so make sure you hydrate well as heat exhaustion is also a very real risk to guests and residents alike but for those with breathing and allergy issues the spot is also popular because of the very dry climate providing very high quality air for you to enjoy.
Author Resource:
Lawrence Reaves is a writer on many topics. Find Johnson Storage & Moving Company online at http://www.johnsonstorage.com/
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