Bandolier National Monument

Another must see place when in the area!  Bandolier National Monument is also north of Albuquerque, a little further out,  about an hour and a half.

In the wall of the canyon behind the visitor center, for over a mile, are the ruins of a pueblo!

I am looking at the bottom of the wall from another pueblo ruins that is in the middle of the canyon.  You can see all the holes in the wall.  Along the bottom of the wall some of the holes were widened and used as part of the pueblo.....

looking from the middle of the canyon down this beautiful canyon.....

 Here I'm up against the wall looking down on the lower pueblo ruins.....

Adobe walls were built out from the canyon wall and the natural caves were used for storage at the back of the homes.......

 As you can see, ladders had to be used to get to some of the upper dwellings.....

 I'm looking across a set of rooms in this dwelling......

 Here you can see how the canyon wall was utilized as the back room of the dwelling.  You can also see that the back walls were plastered.  In some small areas you can see they were also painted.

Here you can see by the holes where the roof logs were put that this area had 3 stories......

 When excavating, it was found that under the most recent plaster was often an older paint or plaster as this section shows...

We walked along the canyon for a mile and came to the Alcove House.  The alcove you see in the pics below is reached be climbing a series of ladders.  If you look closely, you can see  people climbing up the ladders.

Here we go!!!

Mike first;)

An amazing view from the alcove!

 What a day!