Bandalier National Monument, Los Alamos, NM

Hello dear readers - My free time is so limited these days between teaching at the University, homeschooling, and our other projects!  I will be talking more about those soon, but the immediate reason I haven't written is because I spent my free time putting together a memory book with our pictures from the summer.  I made one last year and love it.  I used Shutterfly this time, but I have also used Mixbook and don't really notice a difference between the two.  Going through all of the pictures and trying to narrow them down took some time!  Anyhow, back to documenting our summer travels!

Bandalier National Monument was a trip I made with the kids while husband was working.  This is another park that has limited parking and requires the use of a shuttle.  When you get there the rangers provide an orientation and you can check out the guided tour book and then you can go hiking to see the amazing ruins.  In this park you can climb up into caves which were once used as part of the pueblo and look down over the rest of the compound.

What is amazing here is that the pueblo once was built to include these naturally occurring caves and they served as additional rooms...in this picture you can see the holes that once held the floor beams for the upper stories.

One of my favorite things to see at ruins is the pottery and other artwork that was produced by the ancestral people.  At this site there was a small section of plaster with art that has been protected with a clear cover.  I just imagine how cool this would have looked when the plaster was all intact.  

This was a beautiful place with a really great hike and things to see all along the walk.

Just to recap, we saw Bandalier while were were staying in Santa Fe, NM.  There are a number of wonderful sites within an hour drive - actually too many to see in a week - but we really enjoyed this one!