Bandelier National Monument

The volcanic tuff of Frijoles Canyon was carved into homes and ceremonial spaces by Ancestral Puebloans who lived here from roughly 1150 to 1600 CE — then relocated to pueblos near the Rio Grande that have been occupied ever since. Designated a national monument in 1916 and named for Swiss-American anthropologist Adolph Bandelier, the park protects more than 33,000 acres of canyon and mesa country, along with the largest unaltered collection of Civilian Conservation Corps-built structures in any national park — themselves a National Historic Landmark.