After Amarillo, we drove Northwest into New Mexico, on our way to the Aztec Ruins. However, we thought we’d make a quick detour and stop at Bandolier National Monument. As happens a lot, Bandolier was more interesting than we expected. In fact, of the four Indian dwellings parks that we visited on this trip, Bandolier was my favourite. Okay, so maybe I just didn’t like Hovenweep because it was hot and there was no shade. But that’s besides the point. We allotted an hour to our stop here at Bandolier NM, but it ended up taking about three or four hours, maybe longer, out of our trip.
Bandolier National Monument is located in North-Central New Mexico, about forty-five minutes from Sante Fe. It seeks to preserve Pueblo cliff dwellings and kivas. You’re likely familiar with cliff dwelling type Indian housing, as these cavates are what most people think of. But contrary to popular opinion, they did indeed also live on the ground. Kivas are a sort of domed building that is slightly inset into the ground. They were mainly used for meetings and rituals, and were quite large. At Bandolier, there is an aptly named “Big Kiva,” which could fit the whole community for gatherings.
The cavates are also numerous, and this brings us to why Bandolier was my favourite of the four Indian dwellings National Parks we visited. While other places, like Mesa Verde and Hovenweep, didn’t let you into any of the houses without paying for a tour, Bandolier had several cavates open to the public. All you had to do was climb a ladder, and voila! You’re up in a cavate. Cavates are the typical, igloo-shaped ‘house’ built into a cliff. However, there are other types of cliff dwellings, such as alcove houses. These are larger areas, possibly including a standard house and a kiva, built into an already-existing alcove on a cliff. Bandolier has an Alcove House which they also allow you to climb up to. It’s a hundred and forty feet above the canyon floor, and we climbed up all four ladders to get to the top. Even though the house and kiva are blocked off, I thought it was really cool to be able to go up there.
Besides the cavates, kivas, and alcove houses, the also did have houses that we would be more accustomed too. Vertical walls, rectangular in shape, mostly, with rooms inside. This would have been used more like an apartment building, with different rooms for storage, living, and gathering. To get to all these places, Bandolier has an excellent trail system. We enjoyed walking these from place to place, and smelling the trees. Yes, smelling them. As you go west, there is a particular tree that is very interesting. This tree, the Ponderosa Pine, has bark that smells somewhat like cinnamon rolls, or caramel, or vanilla. Not everyone agrees on what exactly it smells like, but that’s the general consensus. If you ever get to make you way out west, try and find a Ponderosa, and let me know what you think it smells like. I personally thought it was more cinnamon-y than anything else, as did my family, but I’d be curious to see what others though.
Because of this four hour delay in our trip, we weren’t able to make it to our scheduled destination that night. We were working our way over the mountains, and as the songwriter C. W. McCall wrote, ‘it was hairpin county and switchback city.’ While maybe not quite as bad as Wolf Creek Pass, it wasn’t particularly enjoyable in the dark. And of course, we’re out in the middle of nowhere, so there’s nowhere we can really stop. Finally, however we came to a Circle K that we decided to stop at for the night. It was a very small one, too. We went in to see about getting a pizza and they said they didn’t have any. So we got ice cream. We parked the camper out back in the tiny gravel parking lot, opened up the windows, and piled into my parent’s room and sat on the bed. After some time there, the three of us kids proceeded to cram into the bunk. It wasn’t the first time, and it was far from the last, but it was definitely hot. Our brand-new generator had broken, so there was no power for us that night. Ah, well. Coming out here to Bandolier National Monument has now covered around 2,540 travel miles of the 9,540 total miles covered on this trip. Next stop: Aztec Ruins National Monument!
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