Cliff dwellers and south-facing slopes

This weekend, my good friend, Hillary came to visit me from Minnesota. She was surprised how cold it was. Lucky the dog was convinced she was there to see him and him alone. On Friday night, we took a picnic up to the crest of the Sandias to watch the sunset. Achingly beautiful and disablingly cold. My hands were THIS close to falling off. On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast burritos and sweet rolls at The Frontier before we headed up to the Jemez Mountains. Near the Walatowa visitor center are my favorite red rocks ever.

This is what they looked like exactly one week before. Rocks and trees. Two of the best things ever made.

From there, we climbed around the soda dam on Hwy. 4 and then drove up past the caldera: Finally we got to Bandelier, former home of Anasazi cliff dwellers.

Me in a cliff-dwelling. I know for sure I could not have survived this in real life. I have great admiration for the people who did. Hillary in a cliff dwelling.
The "long house". There are lots of masonry-built additions to the cliff along this section. There are also some well-preserved petroglyphs. What a mystery. The cliff that had all the dwellings was south-facing. The opposite wall of the canyon looked like another world - dark, full of trees, and covered in snow. I imagine that being on the south-facing slope would have been quite an advantage to the cliff dwellers.I leave you with Lucky the sleepy dog.