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Just before the start of the big loop; we had to climb up a vaguely rickety ladder, always a big hit with the kids. Well, the kid. As I'll probably mention elsewhere, I dropped my camera in a puddle last night. The first couple photos were a little weird, but it seemed to sort itself out. The clouds in this one, for example, have a weird haze to them.... I dropped my camera into a puddle last night - don't ask - and there was something funny about the first couple of photos I took today. I don't know if there was condensation inside the camera, inside the lens, or under the polarizer. Seemed like it worked itself out and it's all working fine again. The last of the oddly blurred photos. I still liked it; the sky was mostly clear, enough clouds to get some cool shade from time to time, and it was hard to tell which rocks had been carved by man and which ones were just dropped there by an angrier and younger earth...
In some places, the trails and steps had been crafted by human hands at some point. At first I tried to walk in them, eventually I straddled these portions and just used them to follow the trail. (Big feet, I guess.) It's not obvious when the picture's Facebook-sized, but Sydney's up ahead on the trail.
This is where the actual ruins were. In most cases, they were foundations or very low walls. I'll have to walk around more carefully next time, but it didn't seem like there were any bigger or taller structures remaining.
On some of the bigger, flatter rocks that were next to the trail, visitors would leave pottery shards and things like that. Seems like most people are good at following the honor system, and it's fun to pick up and handle something that was hand painted by someone hundreds of years ago. (15th century if you believe Google.) Some of the cholla on the mesa was blooming.
Sydney enjoyed stopping in some of the little caves that were on the return portion of the loop. Much cooler inside, but I didn't go in. This rock looked happy to me.
   
Photos 1 - 15 out of 17 | Back to Albums
Description: Took my daughter and a couple of visitors to the Tsankawi Ruins portion of Bandelier National Monument this afternoon. Big views, and narrow trails worn into the rock by the Anasazi as far back as the 1400s. I definitely look forward to going back again and spending more time poking around the ruins portion of the loop.
Location: near White Rock, NM

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