If not for having some extra time between our drive from the Great Sand Dunes to Santa Fe and a lot of things being closed due to Covid, we would’ve nearly skipped Bandelier. But since we had time, we took a bit of an extra detour to go to this small but very unique national monument and had a lovely afternoon strolling through this quiet but amazing place.
Bandelier basically had one main loop trail that took us up to various cave dwellings and ruins of sites once inhabited by the Ancestral Pueblo people. Since we weren’t able to visit the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde due to Covid, we were really excited to get to climb the ladders and look at the dwellings here up close.
Alcove House
Alcove House was an additional mile or two off the main loop but worth seeing. It requires climbing a ladder and a series of pretty steep steps up a cliff to a cave where there’s an ancient kiva (religious/ceremonial place of the Ancestral Pueblo).
