Day 9

November 7, 2021

Our first visit today was to Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque.  We didn't stay long because the paths were steep and a bit precarious.  But we did see several petroglyphs:

 

 

After the petroglyphs, we drove up to Santa Fe and then west to Bandelier National Monument (which is really a park).  In the park, there are the remains of cliff dwellings used by the Pueblos.  The cliff dwellings overlook the Frijoles Canyon which is traversed by the Frijoles Creek.  This is a mesa-like hillside coming into the park:

 

This next picture is typical of the rock wall where the Pueblo cliff dwellers built their dwellings:

 

This is what remains of the original cave dwellings:

 

 

The rock on the cliff face naturally erodes, and the cliff dwellers made the indentions larger in order to create homes:

 

 

This photo looks into the Frijoles Canyon from the cliff dwellings:

 

Don't let the long hair fool you, here's a modern cave dweller!

 

Here's the cave dweller taking a picture of the tourists!  (He's really photographing the Frijoles Canyon.)

 

The cliff face looks like Swiss cheese:

 

Along the journey today we saw many beautiful golden Aspens.  The trees are at the perfect color right now, and cannot be described with words.  These two pictures show a golden Aspen in the Frijoles Canyon while looking north from the cliff dwellings:

 

 

Here's a shot of the Frijoles Canyon looking south from the cliff dwellings:

 

We weren't the only ones touring the canyon today!

 

In these next two shots, you can see the base of some of the buildings the Pueblos built alongside the cliff:

 

 

The Pueblos built structures several stories tall and tied into the cliff wall with posts:

 

The Rito de los Frijoles (Frijoles Creek) runs through the center of Frijoles Canyon:

 

The Frijoles Canyon is thick with trees – and the occasional tourist!

 

We took this picture as we were climbing out of the canyon.  Here's a view from the top of the Frijoles Canyon looking north:

 

This lady ran right across the road in front of us while we were leaving Bandelier National Monument:

 

We drove back into Santa Fe and had a really excellent dinner at Osteria d'Assisi.  Then we drove down to Santa Rosa, NM to spend the night.  Our plan for the morning is to head for Amarillo, TX.  We'll let you know on the morrow what we see and do.  No plans as of this writing!

Thanks for reading!