Tsankawi Ruins Hike – 10/12/2016

Taking a break from busy times, Pat & I headed to Taos for a couple of nights.  To get in some hiking, we took a short side-trip towards Bandelier National Monument to visit an outlying site, the Tsankawi section of the monument.  On this two mile hike up and around the top of a mesa, we wandered among the ruins of the home of the Ancestral Tewa Pueblo people (the NPS web page provides great detail about the ruins and its people, and about the surrounding environment).

The Hike

Tsankawi Ruins Hike – Pat

We hiked the loop in a clockwise direction, climbing to the mesa top via a ladder, then going south to the ruins site. Exploring the ruins, we found pottery shards scattered throughout, and encountered a couple of room-blocks with walls still standing.  From the mesa top the trail descends to a ledge some 60 feet above the valley floor via another ladder and a couple of stretches on steps carved into the rock. From there the trail remains on the ledge, passing through fascinating geology from the ancient volcanic activity, a few caves in the soft, fragile rock, and with numerous walls covered with petroglyphs.  Much of the trail up to and down from the mesa is a narrow, sometimes deep groove worn into the soft rock by centuries of foot traffic.

Highlight

I enjoy very much visiting these sites with remains of the Pueblo cultures from as far back as 900 AD.  Tsankawi is very easy to get to, and offers an easy hike, not much elevation gain on well-traveled trails.

Statistics

Total Distance:  1.83 miles
Elevation: start  6,499 ft, maximum  6,690 ft,  minimum 6,492 ft
Gross gain: 198 ft.  Aggregate ascending 513 ft, descending 513 ft
Maximum slope: 55% ascending, 51% descending, 8.2% average
Duration: 2:05

References

National Park Service “Tsankawi”
National Park Service “Tsankawi Trail Intro”
Summit Post “Tsankawi, New Mexico“

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