Bandelier National Monument

Address:15 Entrance Road
Los Alamos, New Mexico
Tel: (505) 672-3861

Come and appreciate the wonders of nature and an ancient culture at the Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico, a 32,737-acre park, dedicated to the anthropologist Adolph Bandelier, with majestic canyons and ruins of the Pueblo peoples. The park offers visitors a wide variety of hikes, tours, and other fascinating sight-seeing opportunities.

For more than 10,000 years, the area currently designated at the Bandelier National Monument was a hunting ground for nomadic hunter-gatherers. By the year 1150, the Ancestral Pueblo people had begun to build more permanent settlements, though by the year 1550 these were abandoned. In the mid-1700s, Spanish settlers arrived, making their homes in Frijoles Canyon, where Jose Montoya of Cochiti Pueblo brought Adolph F.A. Bandelier in 1880. In 1916, legislation was signed to create the Bandelier National Monument.

Within the Bandelier National Monument's 33,000 acres, there are over 70 miles of hiking trails, ranging from a short 1.2-mile loop through the main archaeological sites to more adventurous 10-mile hikes through Frijoles Canyon. The tours at the site include a ranger-guided explanation of the area's role in the Civilian Conservation Corps, as well as a tour of the Tsankawi Trail, home to the Ancestral Tewa Pueblo people. The Bandelier Museum Exhibit at the Bandelier National Monument showcases Ancestral Pueblo tools and other artifacts. After a fascinating experience at the Bandelier National Monument, visitors can find food at the gift shop, or in White Rock, New Mexico, eight miles away.

To get to the Bandelier National Monument, take I-25 to exit 282B, then travel north on Highway 285 through Santa Fe. Then take the exit for State Highway 502 and merge onto Highway 4 through White Rock.

Visit the Bandelier National Monument and experience the beauty of the Ancestral Pueblo way of life.