Sandia Man Cave

I organized a hike up to Sandia Man Cave in the Sandia Mountains for one of our homeschool groups, Cottonwood Homeschoolers. There were 7 adults and about 10-12 kids. It was a gorgeous fall day, perfect for a hike with friends.

Sandia Cave, discovered by an anthropology graduate student in 1936, was excavated by University of New Mexico archeological teams between 1937 and 1941. It contained skeletal remains of such Ice Age beasts as the wooly mammoth and mastodon and giant sloth, as well as stone lance and arrow points, basket scraps and remnants of woven yucca moccasins.
The diggers found no human bones in the cave debris.
At first, it was thought that Sandia Man may have used the cave as a seasonal retreat about 22,000 years ago. But more recent dating shows that Sandia Man actually lived periodically in the cave only 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
Even that revised age-estimate would make Sandia Man one of the first recorded inhabitants of North America, hunting game in the Sandias during the same era as Folsom Man roamed the plains of Northeastern New Mexico. (There's no evidence these two guys ever met each other.)


Looking up at the Cliff Stairs from the washboard, bouldered road. Striking view up. Jax and Jem were excited about reaching that spot way up there.
Jackson, Jeremiah and Spencer on the metal spiral staircase with Susan, Spencer's Mom at the bottom.
With the help of my camera's flash, I was able to take a couple pics inside the cave, but the yellow ochre dust was so dense and scattered that the pictures look as if snow is falling.
These two older boys are Rob and Andrew. They were courageous and bold enough to be the first to venture into the cave's depths. They were also so generous and kind to help guide and watch out for the younger kids as they made their forays into the darkness of the mountain.
Jackson & Jeremiah on their way out of Sandia Man cave.
Jeremiah was quite proud of his adventure inside the darkness of the cave. It was so dark inside, that without the light of a flashlight, you couldn't even see your hand just an inch from your face. And it was also very dusty and dank with no airflow.
I took this picure looking down and through the metal spiral staircase at Jeremiah. The staircase was old, rickety and quite narrow.
Our friends, Susan and Spencer inside the cave.
Jackson asked me to take this picture of him perched on this tree over the steep cliff....it was a long way down.
A fun photo of Jax, Jem and Spence. Notice the back of Sandia Mountain behind them. Jem thought it was very cool to be able to see the cell phone towers from this different vantage point then we see from our backyard.
Jackson looking like a cool dude in his 'shades'. The Sandia Man Cave is behind him on the cliffs.
We spent a little bit of time looking for a GeoCache hidden in the cliffs near the cave, that I had read about online. We did a little bit of Bouldering and finally found where the Cache should have been in a rock crevasse, but it appeared that someone may have taken it and not replaced it.
After our hike we all enjoyed some tailgate snacks and conversation.
A busy little brook traveled the entire route of the road leading up to Sandia Man Cave. There were also pretty singing waterfalls that beckoned for us to stop and enjoy a picnic or peaceful reflection.