Bandelier

The 3 Tum Mexican Restaurant in Hatch New Mexico

10,000 Waves Spa

Bandelier in Its Day

Bandelier Cliff Dwellings 

Inside a Cliff Dwelling at Bandelier- Looking out on the Village of Tyuonyi

Bandelier Cliff Dwellings

Up to Alcove House at Bandelier

1000 Years of Footsteps- Tsankawi

 The Kiva in Alcove House at Bandelier

Inside the Kiva

The Ledge walk at Tsankawi

1000 Years of Footsteps- Tsankawi

1000 Years of Footsteps- Tsankawi

   We rode up the center of New Mexico, with mountains in the distance on both sides the whole way up, and it’s colorful soil and small towns advertising multitudes of Mexican restaurants.  Stopped at one in Hatch. A funky little place on the corner, with mini statues of Ronald MacDonald, Kernel Sanders, the Statue of Liberty and a robot water fountain. Inside we stood with many others to order. All the men wore cowboy hats and all the women wore turquoise jewelry. Great meal, everything on the plate slathered with liquid green chili cheese-‘chile con queso’. (It was a three Tums afternoon.) We drove past a column of smoke, ¼ mile wide. The trees on the west shore of the Rio Grande were on fire. This is the boquilla, and it burns every year. Dozens of folks stopped on the side of the road, watching or taking pictures, One TV crew- “film at 11”. Albuquerque seemed a city to drive through, so we did. As we approached Santa Fe, the mountains on either side were joined by a range in front of us. It seemed there was no where to go.

    Sandy’s good friend Jonel lives here and right now we do too. (in their driveway). Jonel and Jonathan live in a wonderful adobe house in the rolling hills west of Santa Fe. The sparse 5 foot tall pinion pine grows everywhere with desert sand and rock in between. I saw a Lowes with hundreds of lawn mowers and wondered why. We have been treated to the most amazing hospitality. Me casa eh yu casa, or whatever it is supposed to be. Jonathan’s brother also came to visit, a fellow woodworker, and treated me to a fantastic tour of 10,000 Waves. It is a Japanese spa way up in the hills outside of Santa Fe. For the last 15 years he has embellished the grounds and rooms with amazing and quality craftsmanship.

        We took Jonel’s car, wow, how different it is to drive a car, instead of a small city, (th RV!) early one day to see Bandelier National Park. The drive goes west into the mountains and atop an overlook we saw a long beautiful canyon. Descending, we saw the south cliff wall, which goes on forever, straight up and completely covered with cracks and holes. Looking closer many of the holes look shaped and enlarged by human hands.

    Bandelier, I hate the name, after a Spaniard, not Native American, was a large community, occupied a thousand years ago by, they think, 600 people or so. A river runs down the valley and to one side is a large field. There is a huge circle of rock structures, a fortress it would seem. Single, double and three stories high. Condos in 900AD! In the center of the circle, were 3 Kiva’s. Ceremonial pits dug deep into the ground and covered with a roof of logs and mud. High above the village, named Tyuonyi, the cliffs are covered- low on the cliff- with a thousand holes. Some they think were for storage and others have or had rock wall structures built in front of them to form houses. I have never heard the reason, but all structures in all the dwellings everywhere around have an entrance in the ceiling. A ladder allowed entry. We climbed the trail that allowed access to the cliff dwellings. many had present day ladders on which we climbed to enter and sit, looking out as the ancients did over the village. It was magical to sit in the houses of these people, where they sat and to wonder what thoughts they had about life and culture.

     The trail then pulled away from the continuing dwellings and brought us down a mile of canyon floor to the Alcove Room. Standing on the forest floor and straining one’s neck you can see the cave that was a place of great reverence and ceremony. Entry to Alcove is arduous. The first ladder is 20 feet, made of logs. From there one walks a narrow stone path, cut a foot deep into the sandstone by a thousand years of footsteps. It curves up and stops at the second 20 foot ladder and up and up, four ladders, all straight up and connected with narrow stone paths, most with no rails. In Alcove there was a 2 story complex of stone wall rooms at the back, 2 caves on the side (called cavates) and a kiva near the cliff edge. This one was found more in tact and was rebuilt completely with roof and ladder inside. I think I held my breath descending into the ancient sacred room. Light streamed into the dark place and the silence was profound. This was a very special place even now, I can’t imagine what it was like back then.

    This place is wondrous. I was looking again for the time machine again.

    Leaving Bandelier, stopped for a look at a trail in an area called Tsankawi, we had no thought of walking it, the day was close to done and so were our bodies. We walked up the desert path toward the rock cliffs, higher, just a bit higher to see why our hosts boasted so much about the walk. We made it to a wonderful rock ledge that we could see wound around the mountainside. Another traumatic ladder climb and we walked the path until the trail pointed straight up to the top of the mesa. Here the trail is cut through the sandstone, deep, deep. Some places it is worn 3 feet deep. Slow going, up the path, step after step in the deep channel, the groove curving up the switch-backed trail, up and up to the top of the mesa. There the view is 360 degrees and magnificent. Across the top of the mesa, past 1000 year old stone ruins to the other side of the mesa. There the trail cut deep into the stone continues around the side of the mesa some ¾ of a mile back to join the rock ledge. It was about the most satisfying trail, the cut path through the stone, following exactly so many years of footsteps.