It has been warming up around here, and it makes me yearn for summer and weekend hikes. This weekend I’ve been daydreaming about places we’ve been and places I’d like to be if it were warm. So my next few posts will be my summer daydreams. Soon enough it will be warm and we’ll be able to venture out for an afternoon hike in shorts and baseball cap, searching a natural treasure along the way.

Bandelier National Monument is about 30,000 acres of beautiful canyonlands and mesa with petrogylphs and dwellings dating back 11,000 years. The main loop trail and visitor center is most certainly worth a visit if you haven’t been there, but we prefer the Tsankawi Trail. It is a bit off the beaten path, and it is one of my favorite spots for a short afternoon adventure.

The Tsankawi Trail is only a couple miles and it is not a difficult hike, but it follows ancient pathways and includes ladders along the trail up the side of ancestral dwelling sites. The petroglyphs and the ancestral pueblo village of Tsankawi are ghostly and beautiful on the mesa above Rio Grande.