We took a SAR field trip to the Puye Cliff Dwellings.
These dwellings, occupied from around 1250 to the 1500s, were closed to the public for 9 years after the Cerro grande fire--near Los Alamos.
They really are built into/onto the cliffs above the farming land below.
As with many of our visits, we saw a lot of pottery sherds. Note the different types in just this little selection.
What is now the visitor center used to be a "Harvey House" in the 1920s and 30s. People would take a bus up from Santa Fe.
Those are the Sangre de Christo mountains in the distance, so we are looking east.
There are some old tree stumps that have been here for a long time.
Climbing up to the cliffs. Later on, we will drive around to the top, because the same group lived up there, too.
Note the holes for the viga beams that made up the floors and roofs of the dwellings. Just above, note the pictograph. It looks high up, but in fact someone…
Some of these are beam holders, but they have been damaged by erosion over hundreds of years.
This looks like an oddly shaped door, but the guide told us that the entrances to the caves were very small and have been enlarged by erosion.
From inside one of the caves.
This shows that some of the the dwellings had two floors.
A ladder would have provided a way to the top of the cliffs. The dwellings stretch for nearly a mile along the cliffs and there would have been multiple ways…
Looks like a steep climb.
This kind of stone, called tuff, was deposited about a million years ago from the Valles Caldera volcano which is about 25 miles from here.
Look closely to find the 4-legged animal in this pictograph.
The guide told us that you can tell "original" pictographs if you look closely because they have been pecked out of the stone rather than etched or carved.