Bandelier News

BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT, N.M. —  With heavy packs and tired feet, Lucas Suina and Ramon Baros hiked miles through the backcountry's scrub and ponderosa pine. They started to wonder if they'd ever reach their destination.

Walking in the footsteps of the past is indeed a humbling and powerful experience, a chance to visit a time capsule that contains the ghosts, artifacts, and memories of days long gone.

Inside the dark, cliffside cave last occupied by the people of Frijoles Canyon some 500 years ago, is evidence of more recent human activity: graffiti proclaiming "2008" and "I love you" carved into a wall. "Oh, man," art conservator Larry Humetewa muttered as he bent to inspect the damage in the "cavate," a large, cave-live room. Vandalism is just one of many threats to the fragile archaeological sites that are the heart of national parks and monuments in the arid West.