New Mexico Road Trip - Old Town Albuquerque and Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument (Day 7)

After a nice hike up to the top of Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks; the view is phenomenal!

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

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Day 7: Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and Old Town Albuquerque

With one final full day to enjoy our week in New Mexico, we weighed several options and decided to start our day with a drive out to the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. We knew very little about this spot except reading a bit about the unique rock formations. It seemed like a nice day to do some hiking, so why not? The drive from Albuquerque took just under an hour. Just like in other more rural states, we quickly left the sprawl of the city behind and found ourselves feeling hundreds of miles away from anyone as we drove across the desert.

From the trailhead near the parking lot you can see there is something very interesting going on geologically speaking.

a brief history and geology of Kasha-katuwe tent rocks national monument

United States presidents have the ability to designate areas as ‘national monuments’. As the country has recently learned under President Trump, these areas can also be un-designated. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks owes its status and protection to President Bill Clinton, who established this site in 2001. Kasha-Katuwe means ‘white cliffs’ in the language of the nearby Chochiti Pueblo.

Six to seven million years ago, a volcano erupted and spewed a thick layer of pumice, ash, and tuff. Over the intervening eons, a large amount of that has eroded away, leaving the strongest or largest segments in place that today form hoodoos, or tent rocks, standing spires that range from a few feet to 90 feet tall. These tent rocks are both beautiful to look at and surprisingly large when you walk among them.

Standing below these boulders perched atop rocky pinnacles, I tried not to think about gravity.

what to do at kasha-katuwe tent rocks national monument

There are three hikes at Kasha-Katuwe for visitors to take in the scenery. There is a one-mile loop trail, set apart from the other trails, and which we did not explore. We did, however, hike the other two trails where one is a spur off of the first. When combined, the Cave Loop Trail (1.2 mile loop) and Slot Canyon Trail (1 mile each way) create a hearty 3.2 mile hike with a serious ascent. You can view a map of the site and trails here.

The cap stones are a harder, more resistant material and help protect the rock below from erosion.

our hiking experience at kasha-katuwe tent rocks national monument

The trailhead for both the Cave Loop and Slot Canyon Trails start at the parking lot, which has a picnic area and restrooms. The first half mile is an easy desert walk out towards the mesa, which cuts a sharp figure against the open, blue sky. We came to a juncture where we had the choice to continue on the Cave Loop Trail, which veered left, or to continue to the Slot Canyon spur. In our case, we made the very good decision to hike through Slot Canyon.

As we looked up at the heights of the mesa, we could see teeny tiny people atop it and, while it was hard to envision how it would happen, it was clear we had just chosen to scale it. Yikes!

As we hiked up the trail, we ascended through time. The rock layers on the bottom are older than those on the top. Kind of fun to think about.

Slot Canyon, true to its name, is a narrow canyon where the trail winds between the tent rocks, with other neighboring tent rocks standing tall in all directions. Walking through the curves and seeing the smooth, wind- and rain-carved rocks was an awe-inspiring experience. In a few areas, the path got fairly narrow and required hikers to really work at climbing over and among the tent rocks, though it was never tight in a way that would make claustrophobic hikers uncomfortable.

Among the sandy rocks, we periodically stopped to look up. The rocks parted in curves and waves above us, rendering the blue sky a weightless ocean between them. Our hike was filled with exclamations of ‘look at that!’ Until we came to the base of the mesa where the wide-eyed statement/question was “we’re going to climb that?!”

Sandstone slowly erodes, forming beautiful curves and natural canyons. Be advised: flash floods are a concern when hiking this trail.

The climb up the side of the mesa was a steep ascent up 630 feet. Since it’s hard to picture what that really looks like, the average story in a building is 14 feet, making this about as tall as a 45-story building. Straight up. While I am unsure why they have not yet installed scaffolding to pull people up like what window cleaners use on buildings that tall (only half kidding here), they simply have left the only option as a steep hike.

It is easy in retrospect to imagine something was easier than it was, but I will be honest that this climb scared me at parts. There was a fairly flat area that required us to scramble over a rock basically on our hands and knees. On the other side of it was the abyss. And then near the top was a fairly straight-up climb where you have to pull yourself along, again with the canyon way, way, way down below. Other than those two parts, it was definitely uphill, but those two sections were nerve racking. I was petrified at times, my head filled with images of my feet slipping out from under me and my body falling. I am not afraid of heights, though I have a healthy respect for them. I almost gave up except that I was more afraid at this point to turn around. Needless to say, there is also a fair amount of wind at this height out in the desert, and that wind was not my friend.

Looking up you can imagine a giant’s eye peering skyward.

The view at the top makes it worth it, though the wind was even stronger, and I stayed very far from the edges. Looking around 360 degrees, you will see the Rio Grande Valley, and three mountain ranges: Sandia, Jemez, and Sangre de Cristo. Even seeing the nearby tent rocks from this height demonstrates a different angle of their beauty. They also looked small, which was startling, when they had just towered above us in the canyon!

The hike down, which I started dreading almost as soon as we made it to the top, was only bad in maybe one spot but otherwise okay. The canyon below was so beautiful that hiking back though it and seeing it from a different direction was still interesting, and perhaps I was hopped up on adrenaline from my climb.

I wonder if this location was ever a part of fertility rituals? ;-)

This is truly a unique hike and well worth a visit. Be sure to do your part to protect it for future generations.

I love noticing each layer and thinking about what happened in the past to create them!

Before too long, the canyon trail met back up with the Cave Loop Trail, and the rest of the hike was, as they say, a walk in the woods (well, desert) in comparison. Along the trail were some cave dwellings from earlier inhabitants, and nice views of the desert plant life.

A note on safety: like many canyon trails in the desert, they are at risk of sudden flash floods. Slot Canyon is no different, so do not attempt this hike if there is a chance of sizable rain. It can be easy to misjudge this risk, but deserts flood surprisingly fast.

We drove back to Albuquerque, where we were staying the night and decided to spend the late afternoon and evening in Old Town Albuquerque.

exploring old town albuquerque

Before this area was a sprawling city, it was a small outpost. Albuquerque was founded in 1706 by the New Mexican governor, Spaniard Francisco Cuervo y Valdés. Today, the area preserved as the original town is about ten city blocks or 0.8 square miles, making it easily walkable. Here is a map of the area. Many of the buildings visible now do not date to the original town’s founding but more often to the late 1800s or early 1900s. So, this is an ‘old’ town in a way that only exists in America.

Old Town Albuquerque is filled with the warm colors of adobe buildings, bright flecks of colored décor lining the streets, quaint alleys, and a festive air. Many of the buildings today house galleries and shops, making the area a nice place for window (or actual) shopping. San Felipe Church, built in 1793, is likely the oldest building within the area. There are several restaurants, many with outdoor dining. We enjoyed dining outside while there.

We would recommend about half a day wandering through and exploring Old Town. For a special sight, at Christmas the area is decorated with luminarias, paper lanterns whose tradition dates back about 300 years in the Rio Grande valley.

While we never enjoy the conclusion to our trips, ending this road trip in Albuquerque made it easy for us to be settled in the city for a few days and easily get to the airport for our return trip without a long drive on our final day.

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