Tyuonyi Pueblo

Bandelier National Monument is a protected area near Los Alamos, New Mexico. It covers 33,677 acres and was designated a national monument on February 11, 1916. A visitor can walk around the various trails to get a glimpse of Puebloan people’s lives in that area, including their homes, kivas, rock paintings, and petroglyphs. Although there are some cliff housing structures in the area, one can also see several homes built on the Frijoles Canyon floor. The Tyuonyi (Qu-weh-nee) Pueblo is believed to have been a two-story complex used for housing and food storage. It had around 400 rooms with 245 of those on the ground floor. This particular visit we made on March 13, 2014, was precisely six months after the largest flood ever recorded in the park’s history. There were still vivid signs of the destruction, and the visitor center (and the internet) has videos of the flood as it happened. You can see other photos from this visit here on this site.