Bandolier National Monument

New Mexico

In April 1999, Melanie and Mark Benson visited Mike and Judy Prestwich at our home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bensons like fascinating outdoor places so Mike and Judy drove them to the ancient Anasazi ruins at Bandolier National Monument. Bandolier is a delightful two hours north of Albuquerque by way of Santa Fe and Los Alamos.  The scenic route home through the forests and deserts through Jemez Pueblo and San Ysidro takes three hours. You can easily spend three hours at Bandolier, so bring a lunch and prepare to hike a few miles around the park. Bandolier is over 8,000 feet above sea level so bring both a warm coat and a light jacket in the Fall and Spring.

Bandolier is a fine place to explore the life of the Anasazi cliff dwellers who inhabited the four corners area over one thousand years ago, then abruptly left about six hundred years ago. They built their homes by digging into the relatively soft cliffs composed of compressed volcanic ash called rhyolite tuff, then building adobe or pueblo style homes against the cliff face.

Click on any of the photos below to display an image approximately 640 X 480 in size.  All images are copyright 1999, Mike Prestwich, all rights reserved.   However, images found on this site may be used freely for personal, non-commercial purposes, such as Windows wallpaper, greeting cards, school reports, etc.  Please e-mail any comments about this page to Mike Prestwich.

General Interest Photos

8,000 feet above sea level. hiking, backpacking, etc.	Adobe house built in the 1920s by the Forest Service.	Archaeologists excavated these foundations.	Rhyolite tuff cliff faces, weathered by rain and wind.
The Long House isn't really as long as the sign indicates.	Pinion and Juniper trees grow where water is sparse.	Rugged cliffs against New Mexico's fabulous blue sky.	The Great Stone Face? Jaguar? My Imagination?
Crooked smile? Winking?	600 years of neglect . . .	600-year-old shopping mall?	Religious Art?
Crumbling plaster from inside an ancient home.	Some of the petroglyphs are 30 feet above the ground.	The holes once held poles to support roofs and floors.	Three stories high! Plaster survives on the 2nd level.
Plaster preserved 100 years ago under glass. Bat guano from caves above.	Cottonwood trees in the valley grow along the stream that runs all year long.	Cottonwood trees have leaves May - September. They turn yellow in October.	Large pine trees grow in the valley, and provide a perfect setting for a picnic lunch.
Old growth Ponderosa pine	Lens flair, ruins far below	More restored pueblo homes	Two doorways weather worn
Looking down from the trail	This is a beautiful hike!	Weird, weathered, rhyolite	Brain rocks?

Family Photos

Mike, Judy, Melanie, Mark	Melanie, Judy at picnic site	Melanie & Mark	Judy in Pendelton jacket
Sun's not in her eyes now!	Short people lived in here!	South face - warm in winter.	Mike. Where's Mark?