10/20/07 Bandelier

Up and out early again today. Today we went to the Bandelier National Monument.

We passed some beautiful scenery on our way.

We couldn't help but notice how yet another state "decorates" its overpasses.

We came to an area where you pull off the road and are we ever glad we did! You just can't imagine how beautiful this is. The pictures are nice, but seeing it first hand is breathtaking.

When we reached the parking area we went into the visitor's pavillion and this display caught my eye. I think its a good way to remind people not to litter!

Before we started on the mile and a half trek through the park, there are actually 70 miles of trails but we're only doing the part where the cliff dwellings are, we had lunch in the courtyard.

Bandelier National Monument is a U.S. National Monument consisting of 32,737 acres. About 23,367 acres of the monument has been designated a wilderness area. One question I had was what is the difference between a National Monument and a National Park. After all, this had all the makings of a park as far as I could tell, it had a picnic area, hiking trails, camping and a park like setting. So I did a little research and found the difference. A National Monument in the United States is a protected area that is similar to a national park (specifically a U.S. National Park) except that the President of the United States can quickly declare an area of the United States to be a national monument without Congressional approval. National monuments receive less funding and afford fewer protections to wildlife than national parks.
Another difference between a national monument and national park is the amount of diversity in what is being protected; national monuments aim to preserve at least one unique resource but do not have the amount of diversity of a national park (which are supposed to protect a host of unique features). So now you know too.

We made our start on the loop into the Frijoles Canyon and the first thing we came to is what is left of ancient Kivas. These are the ceremonial buildings of the ancient Pueblos.

We soon came to the cliff dwellings we had heard so much about.

We just had to climb up and look inside.

Can you see the petroglyphs?

It seems that cactus grows anywhere it wants!

See the holes in the mountain side? They were put there for a reason.

These holes are where the logs, that the roofing material was put on, were secured as the picture below shows.

Some of the scenery.

So this was our day Bandelier National Monument. We passed this rock formation on the way home.