Big Kiva Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 4

Garden Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 5

~0 min drive

Evidence of the first people in this area dates back to over 11,000 years. Stone spear points have been found but early hunter-gatherers moved across the landscape and didn’t build many permanent structures. As these early people traveled following game animals they collected…

Frijoles Creek Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 3

~0 min drive

Looking at Frijoles Creek it is hard to imagine it carving this dozen mile long canyon. In recent years it is not uncommon for this stream to dry up in summer from near Alcove House and downstream. Before Las Conchas Fire in 2011 this stream ran at least past the visitor cente…

Native Plants Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 6

~0 min drive

You are approaching the remains of the village of Tyuonyi (QU-weh-nee). Once the walls of the village would have stood one to two stories tall in front of you but now only the base layers remain. Around the village two important plants still grow, four-winged saltbush and pale…

Entering Tyuonyi Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 7

~0 min drive

You are now standing in the central plaza of the village. Can you hear the dogs barking and the laughter of children playing or chasing the domesticated turkeys? This would have been a very active and noisy place during Ancestral Pueblo times. One theory suggests that this vil…

In Tyuonyi Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 8

~0 min drive

The kiva you see in front of you served the same purpose as Big Kiva that you saw earlier on this walk. It too would have had a hard plastered roof with an entrance in and a ladder in the middle. <br /> <br /> Tyuonyi, as with many of the archeological sites along the Pueblo L…

Soft Rock Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 10

~0 min drive

The cliff in front of you has numerous holes, some big and some small. These holes are created by wind and water erosion of the volcanic tuff we talked about earlier. Water freezes and thaws in the permeable rock breaking off big and small pieces (most are microscopic). Wind p…

First Cavate Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 11

~0 min drive

You have arrived at the first of three ladders you can climb into cavates (CAVE-eights), human excavated openings. Although sometimes used for housing, the main purpose of cavates was often food storage. Remember the Ancestral Pueblo people lived here for over 400 years and th…

Exiting Tyuonyi Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 9

~0 min drive

Notice the small slope and abundant plant life as the trail exits Tyuonyi. This is what the entire village would have looked like before excavations. Looking at the cliff ahead of you, you can see at least one of three ladders you will be able to climb to see the inside of a c…

Geology Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 2

~0 min drive

Frijoles Canyon is carved into a thick layer of volcanic ash that over time compacted into a soft rock known as tuff. This ash was deposited over 1 million years ago in two separate eruptions of the Jemez Volcano, each spewing over 600 times more ash than Mt St Helens in 1980.…

Talus House Pueblo Loop Trail Stop 12

~0 min drive

This is Talus House, reconstructed in 1920 to show the structures that would have been found in front of many of the cavates when the Ancestral Pueblo people were still occupying the canyon. For many years park staff believed the reconstruction was inaccurate due to what appea…