Day 13: Cliff Dwellings

Today we decided to sleep in again and then go see some cliff dwellings. We drove about an hour northwest of Santa Fe toward Los Alamos and then entered Bandelier National Monument Park, home of the cliff dwellings of the Pueblo Indians. We learned that the national park was once home to two volcanoes that erupted millions of years ago, leaving the caldera that we walked through today. We hiked up to the canyon walls and climbed lots of wooden ladders, peering into the caves where the Pueblo people once lived. We also saw some cool petroglyphs. We then hiked another mile and reached the super duper cave dwelling, which we had to climb a series of rickety wooden ladders 140 ft up the cliff to reach. This was a ceremonial cave built for religious purposes, which was named the Alcove House. The cliff dwellings were pretty amazing to see and reminded me a little of Machu Picchu (a completely different set of ruins, but they still gave me an incredible amount of awe and respect for the people who lived, breathed, and died there). 

And thus ends our stay in Santa Fe...tomorrow we'll have a long day of driving, big surprise. More updates from the Grand Canyon and Vegas to come!