NPS Unit Count: 85/433
Hey there Adventurers! Continuing my New Mexico/Colorado June 2025 exploration, I found myself at Bandelier National Monument in the higher elevations of north central New Mexico. I stopped in before the visitor center closed to get stamps and souvenirs, but it was raining and would be for a bit, so I made the decision to drive about an hour up the road to Valles Caldera National Preserve for a very brief and incomplete visit. I doubt I will ever come back, so it’s getting included here!
To start with, I want to throw a shout out to the state of New Mexico! Yes there is a lot of desert, but it is a really neat state with a TON of stuff to do and explore! And it isn’t all desert! Valles Caldera National Preserve is a really cool looking spot that definitely does not look like what you think New Mexico looks like! I did not make any type of real visit, the park closes with a gate and I was getting there right about at closing time so I just basically stopped at the entrance and explored the area there from the road. The caldera itself is about 14 miles wide and was the site of a huge eruption about 1.2 million years ago. It is large enough that you really lose the scale of what you are looking at! The area is geologically active, but now is mostly used for recreation. There is a large grassland in the middle of the caldera along with several lava domes, some of which are visible from the road.
Soon enough, I figured it was time to head back down to Bandelier. This is a really neat park! The main feature that brings people here are the homes that the ancient Puebloans built into the volcanic rock of the canyon here, called cavates. Compared to the dwellings I visited in other sites on this trip, these are unique. The cliff face looks like a honeycomb of sorts with numerous holes in the cliff face, and many were dwellings of some type once upon a time long ago! Land note: this area is home to sacred lands of at least 23 different tribes.
Upon leaving the visitor center you can take the Pueblo Loop Trail which will take you into Frijoles Canyon, alongside and into the areas you want to see. The trail is about 1.5 miles and is mostly flat. You first pass the great kiva. Then you continue through ruins of Tyuonyi, and up to the cavates at the the base of the cliff. You can climb up into the cavates where the NPS has provided ladders, which provides the neat opportunity to get into them! I didn’t know at the time they were called cavates, and the NPS says that they are actually carved. I am not usually one to dispute scientists, but most of those holes looked just as natural as the natural holes in the cliff, unless the people carved every single hole in that wall! The place looks like a spot that we all would have had a blast as a child!
The trail ascends up a bit to those cliffs and from up there you get a great view of the canyon floor and also of the large D shaped Chacoan ruins of Tyuonyi, pronounced qu-weh-nee, and an excavated kiva. My well trained eyes also scoped out a non excavated kiva. I am an expert now, after all!
After leaving the cavates area, you proceed up the trail and come alongside the ruins of the Long House…and oh boy it is long! It’s about 100 yards in length, along the base of the cliff. When the site was intact it would have stood 3 or 4 stories tall as indicated by the holes in the cliff that held the wood beams of the roofs. The house would have been narrow it seems, as the strip of land between paved trail and cliff was maybe 30-40 feet at most. In addition to the stone ruins, there is a large amount of wall art and petroglyphs throughout the site. Many of the cavates still contain the soot left over from ancient fires. I am including 2 videos, each about 6 to 7 minutes long. If you can tolerate my poor narration skills, it might be worth a watch! If not, I am providing some pictures!
There are many more trails in the park. Notably, there is a really cool looking area called the alcove house, which requires ascending several tall ladders to reach, but it was closed when I visited. So this was it for me as it was getting late in the day and I still had to return to Albuquerque for the following days adventures! Bandelier is definitely worth your time if you are in the Santa Fe/Albuquerque area!
The Parks Adventurer 