Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Day 191: Bandelier National Monument

Inside a cave dwelling
Today, we went to see villages even older than medieval.  Bandelier National Monument has a combination of cliff dwellings, petroglyphs and a village in the floor of the canyon that was a circle of buildings going up to two levels with a single entrance facing towards the sunrise on the winter solstice!  It's a really interesting place to visit, though unfortunately we couldn't hike at the moment.  Just this year, there was a serious fire within the park, followed by flooding.  Not only are most of the trails closed, but visitors have to park in the nearby town of White Rock and take a shuttle bus.  Considering how un-American that is, it's amazing how much everyone enjoys it.  It's a wonder they don't do it more often, although perhaps it costs the National Parks a bit of money.

The circular village
It's really lucky that the fire and flood damage didn't seem to have caused too much destruction at the archaeological site, or maybe they just cleaned it up first.  At any rate, this was a really nice place to spend an afternoon, and, as Antonia has to do her Junior Ranger badge or course, we were there for ages, just basking in the sun.

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