Tent Rocks – Slot Canyon

Altho I knew I couldn’t make it to the top of the Monument via this trail, I wanted to walk it until I reached the point I knew I couldn’t go on.  I just love slot canyons!  For those of you who may not know what a slot canyon is, it’s basically a very skinny canyon.  At times, slot canyons can get to be so narrow, you can barely fit thru it! But, you’ll see…..

Trees in the Canyon

As if the canyon didn’t get narrow enough at points, we had to share the floor of the canyon with the trees!  Still, I do love the way the colors of both the canyon and the trees set off each other beautifully!

Up in the Tents

Walking along the slot canyon trail, I happened to look up to the side at one point, and saw this apparent trail leading up among the tent rocks.  I don’t think it was an actual trail, tho, as it “began” about 6 feet up the canyon wall!

Around the Bend

The trail only seems to be getting narrower – it’s the trees taking up a lot of the room.  They do help to sort of point out the direction we need to be heading, tho!

Where’s Jeff?

Can you see Jeff waiting for me to catch up on the trail?  I purposefully included this image so that you can gain a perspective of how tall the canyon walls are!  One nice thing about that is that there always seems to be a bit of shade one can stand it to escape the hot rays of the sun.

Looking Up at Tent Walls

Once again, I looked up at the canyon walls right next to me, and saw the tent rocks perched on top of the canyon wall.  This is a good illustration of how the tent rocks can look so tall (hundreds of feet tall), but actually are only, at most, about 90 feet tall.

Getting Skinny

The walls are really getting close now!  The trail (canyon floor) keeps getting narrower and narrower.  I now can truly understand why people need to be very cautious when walking thru canyons like these during the monsoon season, when afternoon brief rainstorms can pop up at almost any time.  If there were a sudden downpour, the rain run-off could happen very quickly and totally flood this canyon.  It wouldn’t last long, and the rainwater would run off very quickly, but if one were unfortunate enough to be caught in the canyon at the moment the flood waters came thru, they could certainly drown.  However, no chance of rain on this day!

Walking in the Slot

Now I’m feeling that I’m truly walking in a slot canyon, and it’s this part that I love to be in and photograph!  During points along here, I was actually bracing myself on both canyon walls in order to keep my balance on the slanted terrain of the floor!

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks

There is a National Monument not far from where we live (it’s between Albuquerque and Santa Fe) that I had been wanting to visit since we moved here, almost 8 years ago.  Finally, recently, Jeff and I took a day trip (or part of a day) to visit Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks, Tent Rocks for short.

Magnificent Sky

The Pueblo de Cochite has always considered this are significant, and works with the Bureau of Land Management to protect not only its geological scenic beauty, but also cultural values.  “Kasha-Katuwe” means “white cliffs” in the traditional Keresan language of the Pueblo.

Skyline

Layers in the Rock

Tent Rocks is located on the Pajarito Plateau and its elevation ranges from 5,570 to 6,760 feet.  Needless to say, I wasn’t able to climb up to the top of the monument, but we did enjoy our explorations of it and I went as far as I could go!

View of Tent Rocks

Up Close Tent Rock

The cone shaped formations – the Tent Rocks – are due to volcanic eruptions in the area that occurred 6-7 million years ago.  The eruptions left pumice, ash and tuff deposits over 1,000 feet thick!  The pyroclastic flow that occurred as part of these eruptions helped to form the arroyos that meander in between the tent rocks.  The above two images are only a few of the tent rocks in this monument.

Perched at the Top

Sentry Towers Above

High Up There

Perched on top of the many tapering tent rocks (also called hoodoos) are boulder caps that protect the softer pumice and tuff below them.  The tent rocks that have lost those caps are slowly disintegrating.  The tent rocks also vary in height – some are only a relative few feet tall and others reach up to 90 feet.  Some do look taller, tho, because they are on top of some of the canyon rock!

Small Arch

Archaeologists have found evidence of humans inhabiting this area dating back some 4,000 years.  In the 14^th and 15^th centuries, several large ancestral pueblos were established, and their descendants, the people of the Pueblo de Cochiti, still live in the area.  In fact, as we passed the entrance gate, it appears the” park rangers” are actually people from the Pueblo.

Manzanita Bloom and Seed

Trees in the Rocks

Uprooted Tree

One of the amazing things is all the plant growth among the rock formations.  The green is manzanita shrub bushes.  There are ponderosa pine trees in the area, and in the slot canyon, too.  There are also an abundant wildlife around, altho we didn’t happen to see any.  We may have been there at the wrong time of day.  I did see some manzanita blooms, and after the bloom has gone to seed, as you can see above!

Deadly Tree

Scenic View

The images in this post were taken on the Cave Trail.  If we had done the entire trail (1.2 miles) we would have passed a cave, hand-dug by the ancestral people.  However, we turned off this trail to explore a bit of the Canyon trail, which if followed to the end, would take one thru a slot canyon up to the highest point of the monument.  However, that type of hiking would be too much for me and my asthma, so we did what we could and then turned back.  More about the slot canyon in the next post!

Enjoy!