CLOSED

3 Miles Roundtrip Out & Back

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is STILL CLOSED. In 2001, the Cochiti Pueblo gained control of the Monument which they closed during COVID-19. Despite that manufactured crisis being over, the Pueblo has kept it closed due to staffing and over visitation concerns.

The fun and beautiful monument, located at the Cochiti Pueblo exit off of I-25, has two main trails that showcase the hoodoos and tent rocks. The 3 mile roundtrip Canyon Trail takes you through slot canyons, around the formations, and then 630 ft up to the top of a mesa that lets you see the basin, the surrounding Sandia, Jemez, & Sangre de Christo Mountains, and plenty of the Tent Rocks. The trail closes at 5:00 pm and there’s a Ranger at the top that starts walking down before that. I started the trail late and despite running through most of it, I was not able to make it to the very top… I was so very close.

The other trail is the easier 1.2 mile Cave Loop that lets you see Cavates carved into the volcanic tuff by the Ancestral Puebloans.

~7 million years ago, the Jemez Mountains Volcano exploded, raining down 1,000 feet of volcanic ash which would become tuff. This soft rock, which the Ancestral Puebloans carved all along the Pajarito Plateau as is evidenced at Bandelier National Monument, Tsankawi Trail, & Puye Cliff Dwellings, is protected by the boulders that sit atop them. By smashing the volcanic material down, it forms these up to 90 ft tall hoodoos and tent rocks which have not washed away due to the elements as the rest of the landscape has. Kasha-Katuwe means White Cliff in the nearby Puebloan Keresan language.