Sunday, March 30, 2014

Bandelier










We took a few hours on Tuesday to drive over to Bandelier National Mounument, just below Los Alamos. The canyon dodged the 2011 fires, but received the subsequent flash floods. The cliff dwellings were built well above the valley bottom and above the flood waters, but the visitor's center was not so thoughtfully located and just missed being turned into an archaeological site.

Bandelier is a neat combination of valley floor pueblo and cliff dwellings.  The caves - many natural, but artificially enlarged - were probably used more for storage, whereas the residential development was in multi-tier stone apartments built along the base of the cliffs.



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