Tyuonyi

Here's a 6 shot stitch from the Frey Trail in Bandelier looking down (south) into Frijoles Canyon at the Tyuonyi ruin. You can see the paved foot trail going through the ruin and towards the Visitor Center which is towards the upper left of the photo. Frijoles creek is just above the ruin in the trees. This was taken on Oct 28th and I was shocked to see so much fall color this late in the year. Its usually done by mid Oct down in Frijoles.

The Las Conchas fire burned over 50% of the park (to the west and south which is to the upper right in the photo) and Frijoles Creek has flash flooded several times since June. The water in this trickle of a creek was over 10ft. deep and black as oil! The Visitor Center is closed and surrounded by Jersey bouncers and piles of sandbags. It may stay this way for years! They are trying to protect the VC which was built by the CCC. The canyon upstream of here burned severely. There is nothing left of a once thickly wooded, old growth forest. Its a moonscape now. Any rain sends walls of black water racing down towards the old CCC buildings. At least this portion of the canyon was spared.

How do you pronounce Tyuonyi?? Good question! I've heard it two ways: Cue-en-ee (Q-N-E) and Chew-own-yee. Sounds good to me!! C&C welcome.

View it Large!!

Great view to get a better perspective on the shape of the ruins and the fall colors on the trees adds some nice color. Sad to hear about the fire, that's a beautiful canyon. A side note on the pronunciation, the NPS notes it as Qu-weh-nee.

Great shot in interesting conditions, Phil! I'd been curious how it looks around there, need to head out and see for myself sometime. I drove Hwy 4 recently, and the forests actually weren't as bad as I expected (I've seen much hotter burn areas up in Idaho). But even from the road it looked like the canyon bottoms bore the worst of it, which is a real shame, such high-value habitat gone, with flooding problems to boot.

Have you been down the falls trail yet? I understand you can now go as far as the upper falls, but below there the trail's history.

I was at Bandelier before the fires, im afraid to go back now...so sad. Plenty of mega-fires to come, im afraid.
Fascinating shot, Phil, nicely done and a good perspective!

@Jackson: I spoke with the rangers there on Oct 28th and they showed me pictures from below the upper falls. The trail is nonexistent! the flash floods scoured all vegetation out of the canyon right below the upper falls (it was thick with willows). They told me they would reopen the trail to the overlook for the upper falls but they have no idea when (or even if) a new trail will be constructed to the river.

@Stan: The burn area in Bandelier is mostly in the back country and west and south of the main ruins in Frijoles canyon. The area west of Alcove house is destroyed. It was such a lush wonderful place to hike. But the main ruins area and down to the upper falls is still nice as are the overlooks down into Frijoles.

Really like the view and the fall colors add a nice splash of color.

Interesting, historic place. I like the panoramic aspect ratio of the image. Thanks for the updates too on the post-wildfire conditions there. Hope they can avoid more damaging flash floods this upcoming winter/spring.

Phil,
Have you considered introducing yourself to the park staff? They may be interested in using this image in the brochure or on their website.