Bandelier National Monument

Here at Bandelier National Monument, we walked through canyons, climbed ladders into ancient cliff dwellings and stood inside spaces once occupied by the ancestral Pueblo people. Here history felt immediate and alive.

The soft volcanic rock of Bandelier allowed homes, called cavate, to be carved directly into the canyon walls. Climbing those wooden ladders as a family became part of the memory. It was memorable to explore each small opening in the cliffs and wondering what daily life must have been like for the people who lived here centuries ago.

So many historic sites, we just simply look from a distance. Here, at Bandelier, we could walk the trails, enter the dwelling and more through the landscape. It gave all of us the feeling that learning was something you experienced first-hand.

One of the most remarkable stories connected to Bandelier National Monument is how suddenly this thriving community disappeared. Between the 1100s and 1500s, thousands of ancestral Pueblo people lived throughout these canyons, building homes in the cliffs and along the canyon floor. Then, after centuries of life here, many of the communities moved away.  

Archaeologist Adolph Vandelier, for whom the monument is named, spent years documenting and respecting the cultures of the Southwest during a time when many sites were being looted. His work helped Americans begin to see these places not as ruins, but as the homes and heritage of living Native peoples whose descendants still live in New Mexico today.  

Located near Los Alamos in northern New Mexico, Bandelier became a national monument in 1916 under President Woodrow Wilson.