See Bandelier - while it's still there

Bandelier National Monument has been on the US Department of Interior's list of vanishing treasures since 1999. It is in good company, sharing that distinction with Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and Chaco Canyon.

Pueblo, originally with 400 or more rooms, in in Now conservators are struggling to save the ancient Bandelier dwellings, particularly at TyuonyiFrijoles Canyon.

Throughout the canyon, "cavates" (a contraction of cave and excavation) are apparent. The cavates include evidence remaining from the placement of wood looms, ash-filled cook pits, nichos and largely deteriorated colored plasters, petroglyphs and pictographs.

You can still see these remarkable structures from an earlier time, when the ancestors of Native American aborigines lived here, at Bandelier National Monument. But for how long?