**Trip report, part three**

One of the days in Santa Fe, we took off to explore Bandelier National Monument. We didn't go to the main section that sets off behind the Visitor's Center. We went to the northern patch of the park. It is a separate, islotated area known as the Tsankawi section. It is not heavilly traveled - we only saw a small group on the trail towards the end. I recommend it as a companion hike to the main route. It takes just a couple hours including lots of time to gaze at petroglyphs and explore caves.

The first two photographs show the initital hike in along the ridge of a mesa top. One of the common ways to go up and down parts of the mesa was with the classic New Mexican ladder. You also could squirm up through crevasses. Towards the latter part of the hike on top of the mesa, you come along foundations of ruins and an amazing amount of pottery shards littered everywhere.


























After going going up and down for a bit, using you final drop down along the side of the mesa. Once below the ridges there were a series of caves that served as enclosed structures a seriously long time ago. They were probably created through erosion. But have clearly been altered by inhabitants as some walls had ridges carved out - probably serving as a kind of shelf. There also were little alcoves carved into the interior stone walls. You could tell which caves were used for cooking by whether there was soot coatings on the walls.























The trails used on this hike have been used for a very long time as evidenced by this rock portion of the path.
















But the walk back along the side of the mesa was chock full of petroglyphs. Close to the best collection I have seen in years.