Two hummingbirds on a nest at the end of a pine twig. Several species of these birds are common at Bandelier.
A CAUTION.
In the foregoing attempt to portray the origins and modes of life of the Bandelier dwellers, it has been necessary to generalize and abbreviate to a degree which may occasionally lead a reader astray. Particularly in the matter of dating periods of habitation and migration, it has been impossible to detail the many exceptions to the general chronology. It is suggested that the reader who wishes to investigate further the history of the Pueblo people make reference to the publications included in the list on pages [43]-44. These represent, of course, only a small fraction of the written material which exists on the subject. Further publication of new findings will increase our knowledge and alter present-day ideas as the years go by.
The Natural Scene
The countryside in and around Bandelier National Monument is wholly forested and even in dry months is cool and green. Lying at an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet, about one-third of the monument receives sufficient rain and snow to support a handsome stand of ponderosa pine. Over the remaining two-thirds of the area, where the slopes are too warm and dry for the big pine, the hardy pinyon pine and the juniper produce the “pygmy forest” growth common in the middle elevations of the Southwest.
CLIMATE.
Summer at Bandelier is the shower season. From the first of July until well into September, there is an impressive display of lofty cumulus clouds and thunderheads almost every afternoon. Fortunately for your comfort, these cloud displays do not always result in showers on the monument every day. As is the habit of southwestern thunderstorms, the rains usually cling to the higher peaks, leaving the midelevations cooled but not drenched. The spring and fall are relatively dry seasons, when the skies may remain entirely cloudless for weeks at a time.
In the fall, the great range of temperature from night to day is particularly noticeable; at monument headquarters a difference of 50° between afternoon high and night low is not unusual. This condition is still evident even in midwinter, when the sun may send the thermometer up far above freezing even after a below-zero night. Partly for this reason, the snows of winter at Bandelier are not long-lasting. The usual snowfall of a few inches will quite commonly melt away in a day or so after the sun has returned. Even the snows of blizzard proportions do not interfere for long with access to monument headquarters, for the typical snow of New Mexico is light and dry, easily cleared from the highways.
LIFE ZONES.
There is a great variety of herbs, shrubs, and trees within the monument, as a result of the varied terrain and the range of elevation from the bank of the Rio Grande up to the summit of the San Miguel Mountains on the west boundary. Three life zones, or climatic zones, are encountered in traveling the central part of the monument; the Upper Sonoran zone of pinyon and juniper by the river, the Transition Zone of ponderosa pines on the higher mesas, and, highest of all, the Canadian Zone of spruce, fir, and aspen near Boundary Peak. Each of these zones has its characteristic mammals and birds, so that the population of wildlife is likewise varied and extensive.