Lost in the Land of Enchantment | Saturday – Sunday, November 9-10, 2024
We don’t seem to have very good luck when it comes to planning a trip to visit Bandelier National Monument. We have been trying to make it down to Bandelier for the past couple of years and have made plans to go there on at least three separate occasions, but each and every time something has prevented us from making the trip, including park closures due to flash flooding and a wildfire. This year I decided to plan a trip to Bandelier in early November thinking it would be a good time to avoid some of those previous issues, but apparently I was wrong since an early and unusually strong winter storm impacted Bandelier, along with the rest of eastern Colorado and New Mexico, on the day that we were supposed to arrive which closed the park yet again! Talk about bad luck!
It was lightly snowing in Grand Junction when we left home early on Friday morning and slowly made our way across the mountains of Colorado to spend the next week making a big loop through New Mexico. The roads were snow-packed and slick as we crossed North Pass in the Cochetopa Hills, made our way south through the San Luis Valley and then followed the Rio Grande into northern New Mexico. We had originally planned to spend our first two nights in the Juniper Campground at Bandelier National Monument, but with the heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures I cancelled our reserved campsite and booked a room in Española for those two nights instead. On Saturday morning we were up early and headed over to Bandelier hoping they would be open. We arrived shortly after sunrise and found the park to be snow-covered and open!
Welcome to Bandelier National Monument with a fresh coat of snow.
We stopped at the Scenic Overlook to take in the winter wonderland views of Cañon de los Frijoles and the Jemez Mountains.
We were the first visitors of the day and had the Pueblo Loop Trail all to ourselves this morning as we walked through Tyuonyi covered with snow.
We hiked up to Talus House for a closer look at these reconstructed structures.
We climbed up the ladder into the only cavate that was currently open so we could check it out.
These narrow stairs follow an ancient route worn into the soft tuff.
Cave Kiva has been closed for a while due to vandalism. What is wrong with people?
Frijoles Canyon Wall
We continued along the Pueblo Loop Trail until we reached the cavates and ruins of Long House.
Long House in the Snow
There were many faint petroglyphs carved into the tuff above Long House, but they were hard to see and even harder to photograph.
Bandelier Rattlesnake Panel
Macaw Petroglyph
We followed the trail back to the Visitor Center and finally started to run into other people who were just arriving at the park. It was nice to have the loop to ourselves for quite a while!
After our hike along the Pueblo Loop to the main ruins in Frijoles Canyon we decided to head across the road into the Bandelier Wilderness where we could find a little more solitude along the Falls Trail. We ended up breaking trail through 4 to 12 inches of fresh snow, but we never needed to put our microspikes on for the hike.
Since this winter storm had come so early and abruptly, the trees had not even dropped their leaves yet and there were quite a few large branches down across the trail. We did our best to clear them out of the way as we went.
Diane leaves tracks in the fresh snow on the Falls Trail.
Crossing Rito de los Frijoles at the bottom of the canyon.
Entering the Bandelier Wilderness
There was a nice view down the lower end of Frijoles Canyon. If you look closely you might even be able to spot the Rio Grande down there.
Upper Frijoles Falls Overlook
Hiking back up the narrow trail from the overlook.
Frijoles Canyon View
When we returned to the Visitor Center it was time for lunch, so we headed over to the Sirphey at Bandelier where I had a Mozzarella and Bacon Burger with fries that was really good. Afterwards, we drove back up onto Frijoles Mesa so we could hike the Tyuonyi Overlook Trail, where again we were the first ones to break trail through the snow.
The snow-covered trail was mostly easy to follow across the mesa.
The mesa-top ruins were covered with snow.
This large circular structure was right near the edge of Frijoles Canyon.
Following the Tyuonyi Overlook Trail.
Tyuonyi Overlook
Tyuonyi Pueblo
Frijoles Canyon Overlook
On our way back down into Frijoles Canyon we just had to stop so I could take a short walk over to the Bandelier Fire Lookout.
In the afternoon we decided to go for another hike along the Pueblo Loop Trail so we could see the ruins in different light. We passed below the Tyuonyi Overlook as we made our way back up Frijoles Canyon.
I took some better photos of the large petroglyphs that are carved high up on the canyon walls in the afternoon light.
The park has installed plexiglass over this painted section of the back wall in order to preserve it.
Wall of Cavates
The last light of the afternoon leaves this faint petroglyph of a turkey at Long House.
We weren’t able to hike all the trails I had hoped to this weekend due to snow and ice.
Our plan for Sunday morning was to visit the nearby Puye Cliff Dwellings that are located on the Santa Clara Pueblo Reservation. According to the notice on their website, they were supposed to be open for their normal Winter Hours on Sunday…
We arrived at 8:00am, which is when the gate is supposed to be unlocked, but we found that it was still locked, so we parked nearby and waited for them to open.
After waiting for almost an hour with the gate still locked, we finally gave up and headed over to Tsankawi, which is a detached unit of Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos Canyon.
The Tsankawi Trail was a bit icy and slippery as we made our way to the first short ladder.
We followed the Tsankawi Trail towards the top of the mesa.
Parts of the trail follow these ancient paths that were carved deeply into the tuff from generations of people using them.
There were a few hard-to-see petroglyphs near the rim of the mesa.
We used the second ladder to reach the very top of the mesa.
After hiking across the mesa and visiting the remains of the Tsankawi Pueblo, we reached the ladder on the other side that would take us back down off the mesa top, but it was a bit too steep and icy for me to reach, so we returned the same way we had come from instead of completing the loop.
We will have to finish the loop the next time we come back to visit Bandelier.
After returning to the trailhead we decided to drive back over to Puye to see if they had opened yet, but the gate was still locked and there was no around. Instead, we headed over to White Rock Canyon so we could explore the Red Dot Trail along the Rio Grande for the rest of the afternoon.