Bandelier

A bonanza of 3 cards came in today's mail, a wonderful gift from Chris (a Natl Park Service employee based in New Mexico).
This wonderful card has good information in the text: located near Los Alamos, Frijoles Canyon is 17 miles long and the creek runs year round with snow melt and summer rains, enabling ancestral Pueblo peoples to grow crops. They built rooms for shelter and storage, occupying the site 1100-1600AD. The area also has kivas and rock paintings.

Bandelier was designated as a National Monument in 1916 by President Wilson and named for the southwestern archaeologist Adolph Bandelier. Hopefully this (and all ancient sites) will continue to be protected!

Wupatki

Had a good trade for cards including this one of a pre-Puebloan ruin located near Flagstaff, Arizona. The area has many ruins dating to the regional migrations that occurred around 1100AD. It has a multistory dwelling, ballcourt, kivas constructed from local red sandstone. Residents farmed land that had been improved by a volcano eruption, made pottery and participated in trade. The sites were in decline by the late 1100s and abandoned in the early 1200s. Today it is a National Monument with limited access.