Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico

After our lunch break at Rita's in Taos, we drove to Bandelier National Monument is about ten miles South of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Pay close attention in Espanola as it is easy to miss the highway that does a diagonal cut-over - D'OH! We had gotten a bit of a late start from Mission Wolf and there had been heavy traffic in Taos, so we had less than two hours to take a quick look at Bandelier. Fortunately, the main sites are all a fairly quick walk, so we got to see just about everyting ... plus it was pretty darn warm walking around in the afternoon. We were visiting Mesa Verde National Park later in the trip, so this was a good intro to cliff dwellings that we would soon see a lot more of.

Dirk, Kyle, & Wendy inside a "home" at Bandelier National Monument - a bit cozy

bandelier home

The window/door/entrance/etc. (!) of the cliff dwelling

bandelier outlook

It did have a nice view of the Frijoles Canyon

bandelier view

Local Wildlife ... proof that at least deer poop in the woods! ;-)

bandelier deer



Next stop on our SouthWest Colorado Road Trip (which was no longer in Colorado!) was YMCA Camp Shaver which is near Jemez Springs, New Mexico.