Bandelier

The day before we were going to head home we had planned a trip to Bandelier. 

Bronze remembered going to a place when he was little where there were old Indian dwellings in the ground and sides of cliffs. We checked in to it and found Bandelier.  Bronze doesn't think this is the particular place he remembers but it was a really cool place to visit anyway.

There were steps and a path built up along the side of the cliff so you could go up and explore the cave dwellings. 

There were so many little nooks and crannies to peer in to.

One spot even resembled a face. 

We made our way to the first dwelling that was open for exploration. 

And up we went!

I was really neat inside, there were adjoining rooms and you felt really high up looking out the entrance! 

I don't know if these were originally intended for shelves or beds but we tried them out as the latter.

We asked the kids if we should pack up and move into one of these places. The boys thought it was a great idea but Elee is partial to her own room.

On our way out Bronze took the kids down so we could snap shots of how far up the cliff the dwellings were for perspective. 

It was a blast exploring everything and we would have stayed all day if we could have! We are hoping to go back and visit again when Bronze's knee is better so we can hike the 2 miles down into the canyon area and traverse the multi level ladders to the highest dwellings!