Bandelier's Tsankawi unit reopens Friday after 10-day closure for trail project work

LOS ALAMOS - The Tsankawi unit of Bandelier National Monument reopens Friday, Oct. 23, according to an alert on the National Park Service's Bandelier website. The unit has been closed since Oct. 13.

The closure covered parking lot maintenance, revegetation work and the staging of materials for a trails and visitor improvement project, the alert says. Materials were staged in the parking area, and a helicopter moved them from the lot to the top of the mesa. The park service said the area was unsafe for visitors during that work.

The park also closed Tsankawi from Feb. 25 to March 5 to stage and move materials for the same project, according to a February park news release.

Tsankawi sits on State Highway 4, 12 miles from the monument's main section. Its 1.5-mile mesa-top trail passes cavates, petroglyphs and an Ancestral Pueblo village and includes ladders. Regular park entrance fees apply, and the park advises against hiking the exposed trail during thunderstorms.

The National Weather Service forecast for Los Alamos calls for scattered showers and thunderstorms Friday.