These kivas at Bandelier still have a spiritual feeling. We hit bottom at 4 am. The air mattress had let us down once again. This time in the Juniper Campground at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico.

After a raisin bran breakfast and a bucket shower, I put on my hiking shoes and headed for the Frey Trail.

My wife Linda would drive down an hour later and meet me at the park headquarters at the bottom of Frijoles Canyon.

The trail was named for George and Evelyn Frey who operated a lodge in the canyon from 1925 to 1977.

Until a road was built in 1930, it was the only way in and out of the canyon. It was well- marked and easy walking even the last half mile that dropped 400 feet from the mesa top to the canyon floor.

I met Linda at the appointed time, and we went on a self- guided exploration of the Anasazi ruins in our shorts and broad- brimmed sun hats.

Around 500 A.D. some very brave hunters and gatherers abandoned their wandering ways and settled in the caves that lined the canyon walls. They dug into the porous volcanic tuff and expanded the natural caves.

These steps lead up into an Anasazi cliff home at Bandelier National Monument. Over the next several hundred years they added rooms out from the caves using rock and mud.The precise construction angles they used kept the cave rooms cool in the summer and warm in the winter. They entered these structures by ladders from the top, probably a security feature.

The Anasazi built round rooms called kivas where they held religious ceremonies. A fire was placed on one side of the kiva, and vents on the other side allowed smoke to exit the hole in the center of the ceiling. A small hole near the center of the floor symbolized the entrance to the world below, the place where their ancestors lived.

In the kivas, boys were educated to the legends, stories, prayers, and songs of the society.

These ancient people never developed a written language even though they were skilled in carving designs of people, birds, and animals into rock. They also decorated inter- nal walls with red, yellow, and brown abstract designs.

In later centuries, rooms and kivas were constructed around a central plaza on the canyon floor. One such community contained 400 rooms and housed 100 people. They were of similar construction to the cliff dwellings except they were free standing and were three stories high.

After we had crawled in and out of these small reconstructed buildings, Linda and I sat down next to a flowering cactus and tried to imagine what it would have been like in 1491, five hundred years before. We began to watch the 500 or so people who were going about their daily business.

Some younger men climbed the steep canyon walls early in the morning to hunt on the mesa top. They carried bows and arrows and nets hoping to catch deer, rabbits, and small game. Older men sat around in circles making tools and weapons. Some women tended their small patches of corn, beans, and squash on the fertile creek bank. Others were making pots or weaving blankets and clothes from cotton, fur, and yucca. The children were herding turkeys and playing games.

About midday a trader from the west entered the village and sat down with the older men. After a meal and much bartering he departed back down the canyon.

In the late afternoon the hunters returned with game in their nets. The older men descended into the kiva for a ceremonial blessing of the hunt, and the women prepared a fire. Just before dark a dance was performed, and the catch of the day was eaten.

Just as the last rabbit was consumed a violent thunderstorm roared down the canyon. Everyone scurried down their ladders and into the safety of their homes. The ladders disappeared just as lightning lit up the cliffs in brilliant reds, yellows, and browns.

Linda and I ran down the path to our van waiting in the parking lot. A quick return to the present.