The family and I went to New Mexico last week for a family reunion and vacation, and we did a little site seeing.  We went and visited Bandelier National Park which is about 50 miles from Santa Fe.  Just before we got into the park you can see cliff from a distance.  After a little drive down into the canyon, you can see the  cliff a little closer.  As we walked up the trail you can start to see some of the cliff dwellings that were used in the 14th century. cliff dwellings.dwellings closer.  They did have a couple of areas that you could climb ladders and go inside some of the dwellings.  This is a photo of my neice, nephew and sister in law going up into one of them entering.  And one that my wife took of my youngest boy and I inside the dwelling in side. When we were walking to the next area, we passed some of the local plant life,cactus.  This is the 2nd area that we could go into.  It is 140ft above the canyon floor, it is an area that was used for religious needs, according to the information at the park.  We were told that a person had to climb up the face of the cliff using holes that were cut into the face.  They have since put in some stairs of sorts, and ladders to allow a person to climb. ladder.  After you get to the top, there is a large hole in the floor of the cave area that was used for the high priest to do whatever it was that he did cave area.  As you can see in the photo, there is an area to go down into the hole in the floor.  This is a view down the canyon from the cave area. view from above. After comming down from the cliff dwellings, you can find some very green areas in the canyon.  This is a foot bridge that crosses the creek in the bottoms   foot bridge.  Hope everyone likes these photos.  I have more from the trip, but I thought this was enough for now.  Tomarrow....white water rafting on the Reo Grand.  Until then...SeeYa!!