June 5 - 7, 2018:
It was a scenic 73 mile ride today on route 25 north through Santa Fe and then routes 285 - 502 - 4 ending in White Rock, New Mexico. Our destination, the White Rock Visitors Center, is the place to stay when visiting Bandelier National Monument with electric, water spigots and a dump station for $20 a day. Also, within a block of the campground is a nice super market, a convenience store, a restaurant and a great Library. Bandelier National Monument doesn't allow vehicles to drive in, unless you're camping there, so to get there you must take the free shuttle bus from the White Rock Visitors Center.
It’s also about 10 miles to Los Alamos with the Los Alamos National Laboratory and several related attractions. White Rock and Los Alamos are both rather upscale communities with nice public parks and facilities. According to wikipedia the average income for a male in this area is far above average at $ 95,000 as of the 2010 census. The Los Alamos National Laboratory is the largest employer in this area with 10,500 employes. Interestingly, our GPS unit didn’t even show White Rock as a town although there are 6,040 people are living here. It is sort of considered a neighborhood of Los Alamos although it has its own post office and zip code. Much of the land in this area is secured with barbed wire fencing with "No Trespassing" and "area under surveillance" signs, it’s like a military post.
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| White Rock entrance sign |
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| The visitors center is beautiful |
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Around town they have several large reproductions of pots
from local Indian Pueblo designs |
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| White Rocks beautiful library |
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| The ride to Los Alamos is interesting |
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| There are many Mesas in this area |
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I went to look at this motivational sign about a Los Alamos girls slow-pitch
softball team. As I walked onto the sidewalk behind these two young girls
one girl looked nervously behind at me two times. She then whispered to her
friend and they both started running down the sidewalk. Do I really look that scary ? |
We took the Bandelier National Monument shuttle bus at 9 AM the next morning which is about a half hour ride. At the park we immediately took the 1.2 mile Main Loop Trail that follows the Frijoles Canyon past Tyuonyi Pueblo and Kiva and many cliff dwellings. Actually it seems to be continuous cliff dwellings which are different from most others we have seen. The Frijoles Canyon is composed of eroded volcanic Tuff approximately 1,000 feet thick. The erosion has created many holes and caves in the rock that the ancestral Publoens used and incorporated into their cliff dwellings. It's a soft rock that is easy to cut into to make holes and enlarge existing holes. They often constructed stone pueblos in front of the natural caves for added space. We took a side trail to the Alcove House where you can climb up a series of ladders 140 feet to the Alcove House. Twinkles chickened out and sat at the bottom, it does look intimidating, but it's a good solid ladder if you just look up, it's not so scary.
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| The canyon rock is composed of Volcanic Tuff |
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| Those CCC guys built about everything here |
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| A CCC constructed diorama of the Canyon |
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| A model of the Tyuonyi Pueblo at Bandelier |
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These are holes that have been enlarged for living spaces, that
are being called Cavates |
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| A portion of the Tyuonyli Pueblo that was built at ground level |
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| There were ladders to some of the Cavates |
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| A reconstructed stone Pueblo against the canyon face |
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| Inside one of the Cavates |
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| Looking down from the cliff at the Tyuonyi Pueblo |
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You can see how they cut holes into the rock for the roof
support beams on this three story dwelling |
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| This is a mural found under a thin layer of peeling wall plaster |
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| A Macaw Parrot petroglyph, Macaw's were a popular trade item |
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| It is a steep ladder climb |
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| Looking down at the trail railing |
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| At the top is Alcove House which is actually a Kiva with evidence of small Pueblo in rear |
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| On the return trail, this view shows the shape of the Pueblo that once stood there |
Our next hike was on the Tsankawi Village Trail which is a separate unit of Bandelier National Monument located 12 miles from the main section of the monument. The village of Tsankawi was built on the Pajarito Plateau and was inhabited by the Tewa Pueblo people in the 1400’s. The village was built of volcanic rock and adobe on the plateau top and in caves in the sides of the canyon. The village of Tsankawi contains about 275 ground floor rooms, but only minimal excavation has taken place. We were amazed by the quantity of pottery shards along the trail, they were all over. It is forbidden to disturb, move them or or pick them up but people have been picking them up and placing them on rocks along the trail. The weirdest thing about this trail is that you are really walking in the footsteps of the natives, as the trail is worn or eroded deeply and in many places there are foot steps ground into the rocks. On the canyon sides, the steps sometimes go straight up rock walls. The current residents of San Ildefonso Pueblo in their oral history claim to have moved from the Mesa Verde area in Colorado to the village of Tsankawi and then to their present Pueblo closer to Santa Fe.
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| Twinkles practically ran up this ladder |
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| Another volcanic Tuff Canyon |
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| This photo shows the deeply worn trail ruts |
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On this Mesa top a large Pueblo with about 275 rooms
existed |
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| A few pottery shards placed on a rock |
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| There were lots of petroglyphs in the rocks |
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The Indians climbed straight up using the ground
in foot and hand holds |
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| A cavate with attached Pueblo |
Later in the afternoon, I traveled to the San Ildefonso Pueblo where there is a visitor center, a museum and you are able to wander around an area of the Pueblo, (for a fee of course), and for an additional fee take photos. The visitors center had handcrafted items for sale and information about the Pueblo’s famous potter, Maria Martinez, who rightfully holds legendary status in the Pueblo. She died some years ago, but family members and other tribal members have maintained the art. The tribal representative at the visitors center couldn’t have been nicer, spoke perfect english and had the beast handwriting I’ve seen in a long time. I guess he was excited to have a customer, I was the first one of the day at 2 PM. The architecture of the Pueblo is mostly Spanish which seems strange since they didn’t exactly have good relations with the Spanish. They in fact took an active role in the Spanish revolt of 1680 where they killed many of the Spanish people, destroyed their houses, destroyed their Missions and drove them from Neuvo Mexico.
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| The main Pueblo area with a giant Cottonwood Tree in the foreground |
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| A ceremonial Kiva with unusual stairway |
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| Most buildings were of this style |
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| This building showed as an old school on the map |
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| Horno Ovens were common around the Pueblo |
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A church has stood on this site since the early 1600's, but was burned during the 1680
revolt, was rebuilt, then destroyed agin in 1696. The history shows another church in 1905 - 1950 and then the present church being completed in 1968. |
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| Maria Martinez was featured in the museum |
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| Museum Building view |
During the past few weeks it seems we have followed the migration (mostly by accident) of the Ancestral Puebloans from the Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon areas to the Rio Grande River area between Albuquerque and Santa Fe where a total of 19 Pueblos remain today.
Our next stop takes us even further to the Acoma Pueblo reputed to be the oldest continuously inhabited Pueblo in the US;
Twinkles and Slick
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