2026 New Mexico – Day 12 – Bandelier National Monument

Megan’s Take

Bandelier National Monument is beautiful! What a welcome change in scenery after our disappointment at Petroglyph National Monument. We’re “off-the-grid” in the campground here, but with Phil’s solar panel set-up, we could use our air fryer and all the basics. We’re being conservative with our electricity use, but we’re still very comfortable. Fortunately, the highs are only in the mid-80s, and the evenings cool off considerably.

Within the monument, we hiked the main trail that gets you up close to the ancient pueblo dwellings. There were three short ladders that we did carefully with the kids.

They did well going up, but going down was tricky. Phil is steadier and doesn’t get dizzy from heights like I can, so I made him help them.

Emmett and Emilia really liked seeing the dwellings. It fires up their imagination.

Emilia said she wished that she lived in a house carved into the rock, climbing ladders up and down every day.

Phil took a side trail that had 140 ft of ladders up the cliff side. I probably would have done it but stayed back with the kids so Phil could adventure on. At least he took pictures.

The kids are really happy about our campsite. Beyond the tight parking pad itself, our site is very spacious with small boulders, logs, and areas cleared of any brush. This gives the kids lots of room to get into imaginative play about living in the wilderness, using rocks and sticks to build and create. It’s rewarding to see them have fun with nature.

They were also excited that we’re at the first campground where we could have a fire and make s’mores.

Emmett always reminds us that he doesn’t like marshmallow roasted (too sticky) but he’ll eat the marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers by themselves.

Phil’s Take

We finally get some scenery! The title photo was taken from an overlook at the top of the road down to the visitor center. You can see a good portion of the whole park from that point, and it gives you the overview of what this park is: a field of volcanic ash that has been eroded to form beautiful canyons. Here’s a panorama from that same overlook:

This is also probably the best view of Pueblo ruins we’ve seen, even the ones that aren’t built into the cliffs. From the elevated position near those ladders the kids were climbing, you can see how they arranged the traditional pueblo in a circle.

Now for the cliffs, it was interesting to me to see the parts that were clearly natural in order to see what the natives did. This shot shows a beautiful view of natural rock formations right next to where they built dwellings into the cliffs. You can see the natural Swiss cheese nature of the rock.

This shot in the middle of that first cliff dwelling section shows just how blended these dwellings are with the existing rock formations.

It may be hard to tell what they had widened to gain access, and that’s the point.

We even got to see more petroglyphs, but these are far more impressive, given that they had to scale a rock face to carve them. The lighting makes it a little hard to see them, but look closely and you’ll see this wall is filled with them. It’s already better than the namesake national monument.

Shortly after this the trail extends up to the Alcove House, with the aforementioned ladders. You can see why the Pueblo people settled here. This is a very dry area, but you can see there’s plenty of water here.

Once I got to the base of the climb, I met a woman and her daughter climbing down one of the two longest ladders. She informed me that there was nobody else up there, so I’d have it all to my self. Awesome!

The ladders were tall, but not steep. The wood was hot to the touch, but I had no problem getting up before that was much of a concern.

At the top, it looked very similar to what we’d seen in Mesa Verde.

The best part was not the kiva or the other Pueblo stuff, but rather the view up the canyon from here. It was by far the most beautiful sight of the day, in my opinion.