Bandelier National Monument

New Mexico seems to be covered in Cliff Dwellings, of all sorts and sizes. We had a hard time picking which one we would go see on this trip, and ended up picking Bandelier because it was close to the campsite my dad had wanted to use.
While walking along the path between the visitors center and the dwellings we spotted a Rattle Snake! The rock you see in the bottom of the picture was the path we were walking on!! Thankfully the Rattlesnake slithered on without so much as a rattle :)

This is the first set of dwellings we saw. When you were down next to them it just looked like a bunch of rocks stacked together, when you got up this high along the cliff you could actually tell that they were in a circular pattern and there was possibly much more to this village then we currently see. They also had Central "synagogues" to worship in. I'm not sure I would like living so close together- nor would I like climbing in through the ceiling.

These are the cliffs we came to see...



Boy were they tight living quarters! At least it was nice and cool in the cliff, because outside was getting quite hot! I don't think we got to Bandelier until 2pm :)

Daniel throws down signs anytime you take a picture of him. The interesting thing to note about this is that Jeremiah does the same thing- and has for longer then he has known Uncle Daniel. Funny what things seem to be hereditary! Goofiness...check! This is the view from up in the cave, and very neat rock formations surrounding them. I wonder what life was really like for them, and it's crazy to think that it really wasn't that long ago they were living here. *500 years is relative I guess*

There was a small rain cloud that came and cooled things down quite a bit.

Very thankfully, there were caves to hide in, and we found a nice big one to fit our party of 12. *Meaning, at least we could stand up as well!*

They say that this could have been a resting chamber, or storage. I just don't see it- it certainly didn't serve very well as a seat for Josh, maybe Ben though :)

The boys humored me with a few pictures, but why can you never get all of them to look at you at the same time?? What cuties though!

The cliffs were quite impressive, and it left us wondering how amazing it is that they climbed these cliffs everyday to their farmland on the flats. The holes near the bottom of the cliffs is where they believe second story building were connected to the cliffs.

It really was amazing to look at, even if the kiddos did not appreciate it as much as the adults did. On the way back to the visitors center Benjamin tripped and hit his lip and nose on a rock. Poor kid bled all over Papa and Mommy.