The park infrastructure was developed in the 1930s by crews of the Civilian Conservation Corps and is a National Historic Landmark for its well-preserved architecture.

[7] The Valles Caldera National Preserve adjoins the monument on the north and west, extending into the Jemez Mountains.

Much of the area was covered with volcanic ash (the Bandelier Tuff) from an eruption of the Valles Caldera volcano 1.14 million years ago.

Permanent settlements by ancestors of the Puebloan peoples have been dated to 1150 CE; these settlers had moved closer to the Rio Grande by 1550.

"[11] Based on documentation and research by Bandelier, support began for preserving the area and President Woodrow Wilson signed the declaration creating the monument in 1916.

This group of 31 buildings illustrates the guiding principles of National Park Service Rustic architecture, being based on local materials and styles.

During World War II, the monument area was closed to the public for several years, since the lodge was being used to house personnel working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos to develop an atom bomb.

[13] Frijoles Canyon contains a number of ancestral pueblo homes, kivas (ceremonial structures), rock paintings, and petroglyphs.

The age of the Tyuonyi construction has been fairly well established by the tree-ring method of dating, widely and successfully used by archeologists in the Southwest.

Scholars believe that some Ancestral Puebloan groups relocated into the Rio Grande valley, southeast of their former territories, founding Tyuonyi and nearby sites.

Some of the backcountry sites have been submerged, damaged, or rendered inaccessible by Cochiti Lake, a reservoir on the Rio Grande created to reduce the seasonal flooding that threatened communities and agricultural areas downstream.

Also at the Tsankawi unit are the remains of the home and school for indigenous people established in the late 19th century by Baroness Vera von Blumenthal and her lover Rose Dougan (or Dugan).

In the upper elevations of the monument, Nordic skiing is possible on a small network of trails reachable from New Mexico Highway 4.

A substantial herd of elk are present during the winter months, when snowpack forces them down from their summer range in the Jemez Mountains.

The visitor center at Bandelier National Monument features exhibits about the site's inhabitants, including Ancestral Pueblo pottery, tools and artifacts of daily life.

The Falls Trail starts at the east end of the Backcountry Parking Lot (adjacent to the Cottonwood Picnic Area).

[18] Additional backcountry trails extend into the designated wilderness of the monument, crossing Alamo and Capulin Canyons and connecting with the Dome Trailhead on the Santa Fe National Forest.

The Bandelier CCC camp employed several thousand men from 1933 to 1941 as a New Deal works project, and built roads, trails, and park buildings and other amenities.

In 1943, camp provided temporary housing for scientists, technicians, and their families involved in the secret Manhattan Project at nearby Los Alamos.

Most of the CCC-built buildings are set around a wooded plaza at the end of the main access road (also a CCC construction), and were designed to house the monument staff, provide accommodations and services for visitors, and included maintenance areas.

The CCC crews also built furniture for these facilities, and artists paid by the Federal Arts Project provided artwork.