On Walkabout At: Bandelier’s Alcove House

Prior Posting: Bandelier National Park

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As I continued my walk through Frijoles Canyon in New Mexico’s Bandelier National Park, the trail began to descend from the cliff side dwellings toward the center of the canyon:

Once at the bottom of the canyon the trail came to Frijoles Creek, that was surrounded by thick foliage that provided some welcome shade from the summer sun:

The water was very clean and would have provided an excellent source of water for the natives that lived here.  I crossed over the creek and then began to follow a trail that went deeper into Frijoles Canyon towards the ancient Pueblo Indian ruin known as the Alcove House.  As I hiked up the trail I noticed it became increasingly surrounded with a thick forest of ponderosa pine trees:

Eventually the trail came to an opening in the trees that looked up towards a high cliff face:

By looking closely at the cliff face I could make out people scaling ladders up the canyon wall:

Soon enough I found myself at the cliff face staring up at a steep ladder that ascended up the side of the canyon:

When I wasn’t climbing ladders I was then navigating these narrow paths cut in the rock long ago by the native Pueblo Indians:

Soon enough I could see the entrance to the cave where the Alcove House is located above me:

Here is the longest ladder I had to climb which caused a few hikers to stop their hike at this point because they were scared of heights and were waiting for their companions to return:

The people coming up and down this ladder combined with the crowd waiting at the bottom caused quite a bottleneck at this point.  Once I got up this ladder I had an easy walk an one more short ladder climb to reach the Alcove House:

The Alcove House is located 140 feet above the floor of the valley and was once home to an estimated 25 ancestral Pueblo Indians.  The Alcove House is constructed as a circular kiva.  This site was first excavated by archaeologists in 1908 where they found a number of artifacts:

Over the years the upper walls and roof on the kiva were reconstructed to its present condition and visitors to the cave can actually climb inside the kiva and look around:

Besides the kiva the sides of the cave also had caves where small adobe buildings like the ones seen on the canyon’s floor were built:

The “viga” holes on the walls of the cave is where the wood poles that helped up the adobe buildings were inserted.  It is estimated that natives lived in this cave 1250-1600 AD, which means this cave was occupied after the Indians in the Tyuonyi village in the lower reaches of the canyon had already been abandoned.  So who were these people that lived here?  There is much speculation that they may have been spiritual shamans that lived here in isolation, but no one really knows for sure.

Whoever these people were that lived here, one thing is for sure from the cave’s opening they had quite a view:

Here is the view looking further up Frijoles Canyon from the Alcove House:

After spending about 30 minutes up in the cave I then proceeded to very carefully descend back down the trail to the canyon’s floor:

Once on the floor of Frijoles Canyon I then proceeded to hike back towards the visitor center:

Along the way I spotted this mule deer foraging out in the brush.  I have seen plenty of deer before, but I always get excited every time I get a chance to spot one:

Back at the visitor center I took one last look back up Frijoles Canyon:

As I looked back I couldn’t help but think, how is it that everyone know’s about Plymouth Rock, but hardly anyone knows about Bandelier in the US?  The people that lived in this canyon were here well before European explorers arrived and their history is just as much a part of American history as the Pilgrims.  Many Americans may know nothing about the people that once lived here, but I am glad I do and feel privileged to have visited such a historic site.  I highly recommend to anyone planning to tour around New Mexico to make sure to at least budget one day to visit Bandelier National Monument because it really is a must see for both its scenic and historic significance.