Guided Bandelier & Puye Cliff Dwellings Tour
Trace Ancestral Puebloan history across two cliff-dwelling sites
Duration
8 hours
Ideal For
4 to 13 people
Includes
Entry fees, lunch, snacks
Highlights
Explore Puye Cliff Dwellings and Bandelier National Monument with a local guide. Guide gratuity is optional and not included in the listed price.
- Explore Puye Cliff Dwellings with guides descended from its original inhabitants
- Climb into cliffside homes and hear stories dating back a millennium
- Hike through Bandelier's canyons, ancient dwellings, and Frijoles Canyon
- Discover ancient petroglyphs and the Alcove House
What's Included
- Mercedes-Benz van transportation
- Entry fees
- Local lunch
- Snacks
Important details
- Arrive 10–15 minutes before the scheduled departure time
- Requires good walking condition for 2–3 miles of walking and uphill and downhill hiking
- Ladder climbing is optional; the descent at Puye uses 40-foot ladders, with a van return available
- Tours operate rain or shine
- Ages 21+ only to consume alcohol; bring a valid photo ID if you plan to drink
- Bring comfortable walking shoes, water, a hat, sunscreen, and winter jacket and gloves when needed
Cancellation Policy
Cancellation requires 1 week's notice.
FAQs
Plan to walk about 2–3 miles, mostly at Bandelier. You’ll also hike up and down, so you need to be in good walking condition.
No. You can choose to descend 40 ft ladders, or take the van back down to the visitor center instead. If you plan to use ladders, be comfortable with heights.
Wear comfortable walking shoes and bring a hat and sunscreen. In winter months, bring water plus a jacket, hat, and gloves. Bring an ID if you plan to have an alcoholic beverage.
Meeting details
Outside La Fonda Hotel, 100 E San Francisco St, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Bandelier National Monument preserves 33,677 acres of the Pajarito Plateau in the Jemez Mountains of Northern New Mexico, protecting one of the most extensive concentrations of Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the American Southwest. The monument's centerpiece is Frijoles Canyon, where volcanic tuff walls are honeycombed with cavates, petroglyphs mark the rock above, and the circular ruins of Tyuonyi pueblo sit on the canyon floor. The Ancestral Puebloans who settled here beginning around 1150 CE carved homes from the soft volcanic rock, built multi-story stone structures, farmed the floodplain of Frijoles Creek, and created a community that thrived for over 400 years before migrating to the Rio Grande Pueblos still inhabited today.
This full-day tour pairs Bandelier National Monument with Puye Cliff Dwellings, a National Historic Landmark on the Santa Clara Pueblo where descendant guides tell the story of their ancestors in their own words. The two sites are complementary: Puye gives you the Indigenous perspective directly from the people whose family history is written in the rock, while Bandelier National Monument gives you the canyon trails, the ladder climbs, and the archaeological depth of a major National Park Service site. Visiting both in a single day, in a small group with an expert guide and all logistics handled, is an experience that would be difficult to replicate on your own, especially given the coordination required between a tribal site and a federal monument.
This Bandelier National Monument tour is ideal for history lovers, archaeology enthusiasts, families with older children and teens, and anyone visiting Santa Fe who wants to go beyond the Plaza and see the landscape and cultures that shaped the region thousands of years before the Spanish arrived.