Hello! Yesterday Spencer and I went out to see some more local cool stuff. We went to Bandelier National Monument (which has been a National Monument since 1916). We'd heard that there are the remains of cliff dwellings to see there, left from the Anasazi people who lived there ~1100-1500 a.d. We also heard it was a beautiful area. We saw both those things! The dwellings were cool-- they dug caves into the cliffside. The rock is rather soft and had many holes already, so I think they just expanded on them. We could see scraping marks on the inside walls, which was cool. They also built buildings adjacent to the cliff, and had a larger building compound on the valley floor below.
On one part of the cliff, there were petroglyphs, pictures carved into the rock. This was the first time I'd ever seen petroglyphs, and I thought that was really really cool. I took some photos, but you might have to look closely to see them, because of the sunshine. There were shapes, and drawings of people and turkeys. They raised turkeys, apparently. We also visited a large alcove in the cliff that was 140 up from the valley floor, and to get there you had to climb up a bunch of ladders. That was cool too! They estimated that 25 people lived there, and in addition to their houses in the cave, they also built a kiva, which is an underground room accessed by a ladder that was used for ceremonial purposes.
After we saw the cliff dwellings, we hiked along the valley down to a waterfall. The stream in the valley flows down to the Rio Grande, which we could see down at the end of the valley. On our hike, which was mostly in a Ponderosa-and-oak grove, we saw more cool things like birds, squirrels, and cactuses. We saw some basalt rocks down there too, and the pines and basalt together reminded us very much of the Deschutes river area.We had a really good time, but Max didn't. Dogs weren't allowed on the trails in this park, so he had to stay in the truck all day. Poor dog.
This morning, it's snowing here. What the heck?!?
I'll post new photos, so check them out if you'd like!
2 comments:
take a road trip to albuquerque on a sunny day and go to petroglyph national monument... it is amazing. you can also stay at the rt 66 youth hostel for cheap and walk around some fun area that is pretty close.
There's something immensely satisfying in knowing that you're in my neck of the country and enjoying the deserty goodness. It ain't Oregon, but you gotta admit the natural wonders down there are pretty alien and awe inspiring!
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