DESTINATIONS: Cave Dwellings

We drove to the Los Alamos area in the morning and hiked Frijoles Canyon in the Bandelier National Monument. 

From Wikipedia: 

Human presence in the area has been dated to over 10,000 years before the present. Permanent settlements by ancestors of the Puebloan peoples have been dated to 1150 CE; these settlers had moved closer to the Rio Grande by 1550. The distribution of basalt and obsidian artifacts from the area, along with other traded goods, rock markings, and construction techniques, indicate that its inhabitants were part of a regional trade network that included what is now Mexico. 

Frijoles Canyon contains a number of ancestral pueblo homes, kivas (ceremonial structures), rock paintings, and petroglyphs. Some of the dwellings were rock structures built on the canyon floor; others were cavates produced by voids in the volcanic tuff of the canyon wall and carved out further by humans. 

 Driving down into Frijoles Canyon.

A kiva is a room used by modern Puebloans for religious rituals. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, kivas are square-walled and underground, and are used for spiritual ceremonies.

Talus Houses were built on the rock debris slopes on the sunny sides of canyons and mesas.

Cave Dwellings

Remains of an 800 foot Long House at the base of the canyon.

Pictographs

Interesting rock formations.

Blanket flowers.

Narrow, steep walking paths through the cave dwellings.

A nice walk ... ancient, aboriginal history and culture.