A good friend of mine grew up in New Mexico, and when she found out we’d be in Santa Fe for a week she was excited to share her favorite place from her childhood adventures with her family. Ben already had his sights on the park, so when we settled into our rental house on Saturday night we made plans to visit Bandolier as our first stop the next morning.
Last week we explored Mesa Verde National Park from our base in Mancos, Colorado. We saw cave dwellings, mostly from across the canyon, and we did a short steep hike to some ruins. We couldn’t go inside but the kids were in awe for a few seconds each time we saw them. I struggled to imagine people living there hundreds of years ago and felt a little strange wandering around the spaces where people used to go about daily life. As we approached Bandolier I wondered if I’d feel the same way about the dwellings we’d visit there.
The visitor center is small and welcoming, and there’s a cafe with surprisingly great food and coffee. The gift shop is one of the best I’ve seen, with a selection of books and outdoor supplies unmatched by all other shops in national parks, with the exception of the Grand Canyon shop. We don’t typically buy anything but a sticker for the roofbox, but the kids found a couple of books I knew they’d read many times over, and I bought a small owl for Emma to commemorate her first (and hopefully only) encounter with a cactus. More on that in a minute.
Since ski season ended the kids and I have wanted to get back into some rugged terrain. I love the sound of my hiking boots on gravel and packed trails, and our hike in Mesa Verde gave us a three mile taste of our return to hiking. The hike in Bandolier, however, didn’t quite get us there. The walk to the cave dwellings is sidewalk and flat, and very close to the visitor center. Once you arrive at the site, there are ladders that lead you into small caves. Once again, it was hard for me to imagine people living there and what their daily lives might have been like, so I left the group and jogged ahead to get a little time to contemplate that. The kids were busy exploring the dwellings and seemed to love it. When they caught up to me we considered a side trail that led us to a campground, adding three miles to our short paved loop. The side trail was rugged and dusty, and we were all in the mood for some hard work that would end with a picnic lunch.
The winding switchbacks took us to the top of the mesa, and we realized the trail was taking us toward the highway that brought us to the park and close to an overlook where we’d stopped on the way in. Disappointed and sunburned, we decided to turn around and retreat to a small shady spot with a bench for three, and eat our lunch there. Emma was upset that we hadn’t ‘stopped there initially, so she was excited to be able to lead us back to the spot she’d chosen for lunch. She and Elliot ran down the path to the bench, Ben and Isla following closely behind. Oliver and I took our time and had a water break, and as we approached we heard Emma scream and then Elliot yelling, “Mommy HELP!” I ran down the path to find Emma sitting on Ben’s lap with a handful of tiny cactus spines. She’d fallen off the edge of the bench and put her hand right into a cactus, then rolled onto her back, which had more spines.
Twenty minutes later we’d removed most of the spines and Emma was calm enough to eat a bit of her lunch. For the rest of the day she wouldn’t use her “cactus hand”, and the rest of the family took good care of her. She met a friend at the gift shop as the big kids finished up their junior ranger books and got their badges, and we ended up traveling back to Santa Fe and having dinner with the family. She forgot about her cactus hand and played, ate dinner, and later took a bath, all without complaining about cactus spines.
I found out the next day that Elmer’s glue is a great way to remove cactus spines (thanks, Michelle!) and I’ll be adding a small bottle to my trail first aid kit.
Casey's Chronicles 
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