Bandelier National Monument – Los Alamos, New Mexico – Joel and Alison’s Excellent Adventures

An opportunity arose for two newer employees of WRCNU to attend a Basic Wildlife Rehabilitation Course in Los Alamos, NM. I volunteered to be the “designated driver.”

After picking up the rental car we left town on Thursday morning, went through Monument Valley stopping at the visitor center, and stayed the first night in Window Rock, AZ. The following morning we had a special, “behind-the-scenes” tour of the Navajo Nation Zoo where we visited three former patients at WRCNU.

Jennifer and Stephanie taking in Monument Valley.

Luckily Jennifer had a decent camera! Ogden the Sandhill Crane is the closest crane to the photo and one of our former patients.

Tribal Eagle Aviary where an injured Golden Eagle from WRCNU resides.

From Window Rock we headed to Los Alamos with a stop at the Tsankawi section of Bandelier National Monument located twelve miles from the main section of the park. At Tsankawi you take a 1.5 mile walk along a mesa, viewing cavates, petroglyphs and the Ancestral Pueblo village of Tsankawi. Ladders are a required part of this trail. It was a great quick hike and a welcome break from sitting in the car!

The trail is a loop around the top of a mesa with great views all around.

The next two days Stephanie and Jennifer were in class so I was able to find several great hikes in Bandelier National Monument. Although there are a total of 70 miles of trails, I barely scratched the surface at about eight total miles!

Bandelier National Monument is a 33,677-acre United States National Monument near Los Alamos in Sandoval and Los Alamos counties, New Mexico. The monument preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans of a later era in the Southwest. Most of the pueblo structures date to two eras, dating between 1150 and 1600 AD.

The monument is 50 square miles of the Pajarito Plateau, on the slopes of the Jemez volcanic field in the Jemez Mountains. Over 70% of the monument is wilderness, with over one mile of elevation change, from about 5,000 feet along the Rio Grande to over 10,000 feet at the peak of Cerro Grande on the rim of the Valles Caldera, providing for a wide range of life zones and wildlife habitats. The monument protects Ancestral Pueblo archeological sites, a diverse and scenic landscape, and the country’s largest National Park Service Civilian Conservation Corps National Landmark District.