Category Archives: 96-Grants, NM

96-Grants, NM

Land of Fire and Ice – a volcano and ice cave in near proximity

In the northwest part of New Mexico is “The land of fire and ice” – the Bandero Volcano and Ice Cave. This is a privately owned piece of land that contains BOTH a volcano that erupted about 10,000 years ago spewing out lava in all directions as well as a lava tube containing an ice lake!

The volcano was very interesting. We hiked up into the blown out caldera where we took pictures showing the crater. The lava flows all around the trail were interesting, chunks of rocks just strewn around and some huge formations where lava bubbled up.

The ice cave was really cool – literally! The cave is an old lava tube that was blocked up not too far into the cave, and water poured into the cave and froze. The lava keeps the cave so well insulated that the frozen ice has never melted, simply growing new ice on the top as more water flows in. Now, the ice is about 20 feet deep and the ice at the bottom is 3,400 years old! The temperatur on the ice never goes above 31 degrees! It was a very warm day when we were there, probably mid 80s when we descended the 70 steps into the cave and every step got colder and colder. It was okay to stand on the viewing platform for a few minutes and then I started to really feel it. Most people only stay down there for 10-15 minutes, the owners told me. The owners are descendents of the Mexican family that discovered the place in the late 1800s and opened a trading post at the site. They were able to offer travelers through the area cold beer that they kept cold using ice from the cave. What a novelty at the time!

The trails to both the volcano and cave start from the trading post/visitors center and while the trip up to the volcan takes about an hour (you’re at 8,000ft so you go slow!) the ice cave is only about 10 minutes from the center. Easy to see both fire and ice at the same time!

Here are some pictures we took while there:

96-Grants, NM

Chaco Canyon – center of the ancient Puebloan culture

Chaco Canyon is a complex of several great houses build and used by the Puebloan people between about 850-1150A.D. The great houses were really cities – Pueblo Bonito is the largest and has 600 rooms built in 4 stories. Many were storage rooms and public rooms. Peublo Bonito housed perhaps 2,000 people but the population swelled during feast and ceremonial times when people would come from the other great houses and even from further away, swelling the population to perhaps 6,000 people.

Several of the rooms are round and built down in the ground on the lowest level in large courtyards. They are kivas and they were used for several different ceremonial purposes.

The Puebloan people who are descendents of the people who lived in the great houses have many stories about how their ancestors lived. They believe that the great houses were abandoned at about 1150A.D. simply because the people were nomadic and left it was time to move on. The food supplies may have become scarce after so long in one place, or there may have been a drought. It’s unknown.

All of the great houses were heavily looted in the late 1800s by settlers, many of whom took away wagons of the squared stones to use in their own houses. A surveyor in the 1880s took pictures of the Pueblo Bonito showing it as much larger and more complete at that time. Sand and dirt filled in a lot of it and the National Geographic Society had a project to remove much of the dirt and uncover a lot of Pueblo Bonito so that visitors can see a lot of the ruins. Several other great houses are still mostly under heavy layers of sand and dirt.

The several great houses in the area were connected by roads that were very straight…when the road came to a cliff a stairway was built right into the cliff to preserve the straightness of the road. There’s a nearby very tall and steep butte, Fajada Butte, that has carvings at the top showing the progression of the moon and stars. So it’s known that the Puebloan people charted and studied the night sky.

Here are pictures that we took at Chaco Canyon:

96-Grants, NM

Sky City – the longest continuously occupied village in North America

We visited the longest continuously occupied village in North America…Sky City. It was fascinating! The village is located on top of a free standing mesa 367 feet above the valley floor. Through carbon dating, sientists have verified that the village has been occupied since 1100 a.d. and the oral history of the Acoma people who live there indicates a much longer occupancy.

The oral history also mentions that the first mesa to be occupied in this valley was “Enchanted Mesa” which is higher than Sky City.  The mesa was abandoned when a fierce thunderstorm and lightning strike destroyed the only path up to the top of the mesa.  The people then moved to a nearby mesa and named it Sky City.

Until less than 50 years ago the only way up to Sky City was on foot or with burros up 2 step rock paths. During the 60s a movie was made using the village and in order to accomplish the movie the studio built a paved road for vehicles. The name of the movie is”My name is nobody” and started Henry Fonda. This road is still used today and is the only way up and down except for the foot paths.

The village is still occupied by a few dozen tribe members full time and many more move up temporarily for the two big feast celebrations every year. The village takes up the entire mesa and can house about 4,000 people. It’s very primitive in Sky City; no water or electricity. No sewer…they use outhouses. All supplies including wood for the fires must be brought up from the valley.

The history of the Acoma people is very peaceful until the very late 1500s when Spanish conquistadors found the valley and the mesa. At first they had peaceful relations with the Acoma people, but soon started demanding supplies from the villagers when they came through the area. When the Acoma people refused to hand over all their food and supplies to the Spanish, there was a massacre and the survivors were enslaved to support the Spanish soldiers and to build a Catholic mission church on the mesa which took 11 years and required all able bodied men to hand carry timber and stones from over 70 miles away. The villagers also were forced to convert and stop any “heathen” religious practices. They hid away their religious items and continued their ancient rituals in secret, on fear of death.

Now, the Acoma tribe maintains the mesa village with the tours and visitor center. They also have a casino on their tribal land…but not up on the mesa. Out of respect for the tribal elders and others who live on the mesa, photography is very restricted in the village.  We were not allowed inside any structures except the church, and photography inside the church was prohibited.

We bought some jewelry from an artisan who lives full time on the mesa and also bought a loaf of bread made in one of their outside oven; firewood is placed in the oven and when it turns into charcoal it’s removed and the round loaf of bread is placed inside and the opening closed up.  In about 35-40 minutes the loaf is done, having cooked by the residual heat from the fire.

We also made friends with Maya, a villager child who lives on the mesa and joined our tour chatting with us and reminding us no photos inside the church!

We both thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Sky City!

Here is a link to a website with more information (click here), and below are some pictures we took on the mesa: