Located approximately 35 miles southwest of Santa Fe is the Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. It's part of the Jemez mountains that were formed by volcanic eruptions dating back 6 million years. Tent Rocks was named a National Monument in 2001 by President Clinton. Similar to a National Park a National Monument is created by proclamation from the President. In Keresan, which is a Pueblo language Kasha Katuwe means White Cliffs. Tent Rocks occupies approximately 6 and 1/2 square miles and an elevation between 5500 and 6800 feet above sea level. The smaller canyons contain rocks shaped like tents or cones which is obviously where the name comes from. The volcanic eruptions resulted in layers of ash, pumice and tuff. Erosion caused by water and wind removed the softer rock which yielded the cone or tent shapes. The tent rocks vary in height with some as high as 90+ feet. The erosion also caused the formation of slot canyons we worked our way through to get to the look out point at the top of the hike. The trail was approximately 2 miles through several slot canyons then the trail proceeded up and we began viewing the tent rock formations close up. Closer up images of the Tent Rocks The time to round trip was about 3 hours. We got an early start so as we were finishing up it was getting towards the hottest part of the day so I can't stress this point enough. Get started by 9am and of course bring water with you, which should go without saying, but I said it anyway. We also had some energy bars with us which was a nice snack before heading back down. This was a very enjoyable and by some standards a relatively easy hike. There are many other interesting places to hike around Santa Fe. We found the Tent Rocks trail some what challenging but it provided absolutely beautiful scenery as far as the eye could see and of course the unique cone like formations. There are many examples of beautiful and unique rock formations all over the world. There is however only one place in another part of the world that has similar rock formations formed by the same erosion process as did Tent Rocks. Send me a comment with your guess and I'll reply whether you're right or not.
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