Jour 4 – Bandelier Monument National, 22 décembre 2021

After a hearty breakfast, we picked up our very fancy rental car (Toyota Corolla…), more than used up with plenty of miles and not particularly well maintained in terms of cleanliness and covered with all kinds of dings. The only positive thing was that it’s a Toyota and those cars are mechanically reliable and tend to run forever.

After a quick stop at a grocery store for some fruit and lunch snacks we headed toward Bandelier National Monument. A pleasant drive through high desert, mesas, cliffs, and small towns. Luck was with us as the weather wasn’t too cold or windy. When the sun was shining it was actually warm enough to remove our jackets.

Jim Takes Pictures On The Road To Bandelier National Monument
Spontaneous Photo... Breathing The Fresh Air Of New Mexico!
Un horno des pueblos encore utilisés aujourd'hui

A horno is a mud adobe-built outdoor oven used by Native Americans and early settlers of North America. The horno uses wood as the heat source and is still used by American Indian tribes in New Mexico and Arizona. Bread, cakes, corn, and meats can be cooked inside a horno.

High-Angle View Of Pueblo Indian Ruins

Bandelier is the home of ancestral Pueblo Indians going as far back as 10,000 years ago. They started to live inside the cliffs in natural caves (called cliff dwellings) that they enlarged when possible, and then migrated to building adobe-style homes at the bottom of the cliffs.

The Cliffs of Bandelier... can you see the Dwellings inside the Cliffs?

Jim takes all kinds of photos with his cameras and lenses. With his telephoto he can really get tight close-ups of the cliff dwellings.

Walking the Pueblo Loop Trail to the Cliff Dwellings

We walked the Pueblo Loop Trail all the way to the Long House Cliff Dwelling. It took us over two hours as we stopped so often to take pictures and admired the beauty of the scenery.

Avec trois appareil photos, nous avons pris notre temps pour composer des photographes des habitations et de la nature , capturant les rayons du soleil qui jouait à cache-cache avec les nuages.

Nous avons eu beaucoup de chance car il faisait beau et pas trop froid et a rendu notre promenade parmi ces falaises incroyables très agréable.

Tree Shadows on the Cliffs
Sunset on the Surrounding Mountains of Bandelier

Sur le chemin du retour, nous avons fait un petit détour par un sommet de montagne pour capturer le coucher de soleil, puis nous sommes retournés à Santa Fe.

Wrapping up our Day with a Glass of Wine by the Fireplace

Après une journée bien remplie, nous avons décidé de dîner à l'hôtel. Nous avons trouvé juste assez d'énergie avant de nous coucher pour télécharger nos photos sur nos ordinateurs. Mais pas assez de temps pour rédiger le blog de voyage du jour. Une autre fois!