Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rock National Monument – Cochiti, New Mexico – March 2018

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I haven’t posted in awhile but just had to write about Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rock National Monument which is relatively new, opening in January of 2001.  This Park is about six miles from the campground we stayed at, Cochiti Lake Corp of Engineer CG for fourteen days.  We did a little research on Tent Rock and picked a day that we felt the weather was perfect for a good hike.  Very glad we did because even at 65 degrees it got hot as we climbed the trail.  Tent Rock gets its name from the cone-shaped tent rock formations.

Tent Rock is a relatively small park with only three marked trails which we decided to do two of them.  Our first hike was on Slot Canyon Trail,  a mile and a half, one way,  hike up 628 ft. to the mesa.  We started off at 5500 ft. elevation to climb the 628 ft. ascend which at some spots were extremely steep climbs.  There were places that only one person could pass through so if someone was coming down you had to step aside (with very little room) or back up.  We had to duck under boulders, climb up stacked boulders, and get up steep inclines of rocks and sand.  We got to a spot where we could see the top (maybe 25 to 50 feet) and decided the next part was just to dangers for us to attempt to climb at our age.  For about  15 minutes we sat on a rock and watched people coming back down and the difficult time they were having that we finally decided we just weren’t going to do something dumb that we might regret so we turned around and went back down.  Just from where we turned around I had a tough time going back.  Sliding down rocks in the sand and climbing down backwards stacks of boulders was not fun but when we got back to the main trail we were so glad we did the trail.  It was spectacular!  The beauty in the canyon was beyond words and even the pictures couldn’t capture it all.

From there we hooked up to the Cave Loop which added another 1 mile to our hike.  This loop took us to a cave in the side of the mountain that was made many thousands of years ago by man.  We could only see it from a distance so it wasn’t that exciting.

We were glad to get back to the truck because whether it was the 4 mile strenuous hike we just finish or it was the elevation we were both exhausted.

We are so blessed to see more of Mother Natures work of art!

Stay safe and love to all our family and friend