First thing on Day 2 we headed to Bandelier National Monument. We hiked, climbed, and crawled through the Indian dwellings. We learned that a million years ago, there was a huge volcanic eruption that layed ash all over this part of the country. Then when the Indians came around, they were able to carve caves out of the hardened ash since it was softer than rock. The holes you see in the side of the mountains were air pockets that popped when the lava/ash dried. We all loved this experience. It was not only beautiful but the history was really cool too.
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They also built rock homes along the ground, these are the remains from those home sites.
Levi - LOL, being silly!
Oh no!! We almost lost Katelyn off the edge....or it's trick photography...you pick :)
Can you see the mud man below? One of the rangers on duty showed us a lot of petroglyphics along one wall and told us the stories behind each one. This "mud man" was consider a police officer of sorts and kept everyone in line. Kyler made a nice impersonation of it for the Ranger :)
This was the last big climb up to the top, there were 4 ladders up to a large natural cave that had evidence of Indian life. Kyler wasn't so sure about this one, so we waited at the bottom while Lex took Katelyn & Levi up. Well, they came down raving about how beautiful it was up there and that the climb wasn't too hard. So Kyler put on his brave face and conquered his fear. We made it up and he was so proud of himself. There were people cheering for him along the way, up and down too! Proud of him!
If you look close you can see the people making their way to the top in these pictures. And the large natural cave on the right was where we were headed.
We made it!
All three kiddos were given Junior Ranger packets at the visitor's center. If they wanted to complete the work, they would become an "Official Junior Ranger". Kyler took it upon himself to complete all his work and interview a ranger (which he was super nervous to do) and said the Ranger pledge, to receive his very own Junior Ranger Badge. This was a HUGE highlight of the trip for him! Love this kid!!
After our hike we drove and checked out the sights a little, then headed back to the hotel to freshen up and go out to dinner. We headed to the historic plaza area to check out the local gift shops and venders. I ended up getting some turquoise stud earrings and we found a great little pizza shop to celebrate Levi's amazing STAAR test results too (98 in math, 93 in reading)
It would be hard to compete with Day 2, but we were excited to see what the next day held! On to Colorado on Day 3!
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