A Strole Through Bandelier National Monument - New Mexico
Information courtesy of National Park Service - U.S. Department of the Interior
“It is the grandest thing I ever saw,” proclaimed Adolph F. Bandelier as he stood at the rim of Frijoles (free-HOH-lace) Canyon in 1880. The grand thing to which he referred was the remains of dwellings of the area’s earlier inhabitants, the Ancestral Pueblo people. Today, hundreds of thousands of people a year visit these dwellings; and, descendents of the Ancestral Pueblo people live in nearby pueblo communities along the Rio Grande.
Located in north central New Mexico, Bandelier National Monument’s 32,737 acres encompasses a spectacular array of archeological, historic, and natural features. Today, 10,000 years after its first visitors appeared, Bandelier attracts more than 300,000 people each year.
Most visitors to the Monument experience prehistoric sites up close and personal in the Frijoles Canyon. Since the designation of some two-thirds of the park as a wilderness area nearly 30 years ago, visitors increasingly come for the joy of experiencing natural beauty and solitude in this pristine environment. The range of elevations in Bandelier provides habitat for a variety of birds and animals and hundreds of species of native plants. Depending on fortune, season, and time of day, one might see anything from a wild rose to a black bear, a tarantula hawk wasp, a canyon wren, or elk. Traces of the Ancestral Pueblo people are everywhere, including petroglyphs, crumbled structures, and bits of broken pottery. All these resource are protected and enveloped in the famous New Mexico light and weather.
The year 2006 marks the 90th anniversary of the establishment of Bandelier National Monument and the 100th anniversary of the 1906 Antiquities Act. Visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy numerous special activities planned in the park and the local community throughout 2006.
DID YOU KNOW
In 1880, forty-year old Adolph Francis Bandelier came to fulfill a life-long dream of exploring the ancient sites of the Pueblo people. He was the first to study and report on the Ancestral Pueblo dwellings in Frijoles Canyon. In 1890, his novel, The Delight Makers, focused attention on the ancient people of the Pajarito Plateau. In 1916, the park was named for this extraordinary man.
During the depression era of the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) helped expand visitor services in Frijoles Canyon. Today, Bandelier has the largest collection of CCC buildings and furnishings in the National Park Service.
Evelyn Frey, “the lady of the canyon,” came to Frijoles Canyon in 1925 to manage the visitor concession for the park. She lived in the canyon for 63 years, not only offering food and lodging, but also charming visitors with her connection to the canyon she loved so much.
Bandelier National Monument contains approximately 23,000 acres of designated wilderness with more than 70 miles of hiking trails. Lush, narrow canyons alternate with sweeping mesa-top vistas in this challenging terrain. Elevations range from 5,000 to 10,000 feet.
The geologic history of Bandelier National Monument has its origins in the eruptions of an ancient volcano. Two major eruptions, approximately 1.6 and 1.2 million years ago, produced volumes of ash 600 times greater than the 1980 eruption of Washington’s Mount Saint Helens.
Don’t Miss Attractions:
Explore a new virtual exhibit of objects from Bandelier’s museum collection debuting on the internet the week of March 7, 2005, at www.cr.nps.gov/museum. With funding from an NPS Parks As Classrooms grant, these items were photographed, and the images are organized into four categories: Ancestral Pueblo period, recent Pueblo works, 1930s work of the CCC, and WPA art.
Browse the visitor center’s bookstore and tour its museum, which currently features, exhibits about the Pueblo people in the 1400s and historic times.
Join a park ranger-guided walk along the Main Loop Trail behind the visitor center to Tyuonyi (chew-OHN-yee) Pueblo and visualize what life was like here 700 years ago.
Follow the Falls Trail downstream from the visitor center, passing two waterfalls, and view unusual geologic features, including a maar volcano.
Become enchanted by Bandelier’s popular “Nightwalk.” Once a week during the summer months, park rangers host the “Nightwalk,” a unique experience highlighting the cultural history of the Pueblo people. To make your reservation, contact the visitor center at (505) 672-3861, extension 517.
Enjoy expansive views of surrounding mountains and valleys from Tsankawi, a large unexcavated Ancestral Pueblo village located in a detached portion of the park, where you will also find numerous petroglyphs and cliffside homes.
Enjoy and appreciate the talents of Native artisans at work. Every weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day, a local traditional artist demonstrates his or her craft on the back porch of the visitor center. Many of these crafts date back centuries and have been handed down from generation to generation.
Take a self-guided walking tour of the Bandelier CCC Historic District and enjoy its structures, intricate tin light fixtures, and fine wood carvings.
Gaze 1000 feet down White Rock Canyon at the flowing Rio Grande. From the canyon overlook platform you can also look out over the vast panorama of the Jemez and Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the Espanola Valley, and the Caja del Rio.
