May 21, 2010 -- Tsankawi has to be one of my favorite hikes. Located almost 12 miles from the main section of Bandelier National Monument, this short 1.5 mile hike takes you atop a impressive mesa where you can explore the steps of the ancients, see petroglyphs, find shade in the cavates and tread lightly across the Ancestral Pueblo village of Tsankawi.
Tsankawi is a place you most easily miss because you almost have to know its there or you will pass right by it. Similarly, the region about this impressive hike is full of petroglyphs that are easily missed by the casual observer. In the picture below, taken from a pull out just a mile or two from Twankawi we spotted three different and large spirals etched in the rock, can you see one of them?
Beginning our hike we picked up a small guide book from the check-in kiosk (for $.50 it was well worth it). Then it was onto the ascend up the mesa. One can easily get off the trail itself until the footprints and weathered trail make themselves quite evident.
Atop the mesa the village of Tsankawi is now nothing more than rubble. Authorities have diliberatlely choosen not to excavate the site but if you are attentive you can find pottery shards left by those long past (as always please take only pictures, leave only footprints and respect trails).
There are a couple of ladders the NP service have installed that grant access to the north side of the mesa where there are seemingly hundreds of cavetes where people lived and built structures. The landscape is completely enjoyable to explore and we took advantage of having the hike all to ourselves.
