Monday, June 16th - by Josh Campbell

Imagine having to live in a home where your only way in was up a ladder, with a single room, and you could not stand up straight in it. Well today we had a chance to see what that was like.

To start our day we went to Bandelier National Monument. We took a trail up through the mountain and got to see the original pueblos and kivas from the Native Americans. It was neat to think of how they had to live in these homes, which most only had one or two rooms. It was quite the eye opener.

After our time at Bandelier we headed to another park called Tsankawi. When we arrived our group split up, one going on the hike through Tsankawi, and others going to a museum in Los Alamos. I went on the hike. The path that we were following was the actual trail that was made by the natives. But this trail was not just up and down. We had to climb rocks and go through some small closings just to follow it. When we started we went straight up the mountain and we got to see some pretty amazing views. The way down was exciting. The trail took us through the sides of cliffs which were filled with, what we think of as caves but were actually homes. These were much smaller then the ones we had seen at Bandelier. Also along the way we spotted carvings in the wall which we could tell were not made by recent people. The had all kinds of shapes, symbols and even what looked to be like native people dancing and even ones that were playing an instrument. This day to me was very cool because instead of seeing these type of scenery on TV, I really got to be there to see it in person, which made it feel even more informative.