• Slot Canyon Tent Rocks New Mexico
• Slot Canyon Tent Rocks

Take an imaginary trip to another planet, at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National monument. Above all, this area is worthy of a Sci-Fi movie and it’s probably the reason why they filmed the tv series Earth 2 here. By far, the coolest part of this site Slot Canyon is.

• Before long, we hit the slot canyon portion of the trail. Found in many places in the Southwest United States, slot canyons are formed as water rushes through the rock. The slot canyon at Tent Rock is unique in that it is carved into volcanic ash – or tuff.
• Kasha-Katuwe, or “White Cliffs” Tent Rocks is a sacred area to the Puebloans. Archeological evidence shows that ancient people have inhabited the area for the past 4,000 years. The magical hoodoo landscape of the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument (Photo by Julius R, Wikipedia).

queezing through two tall vertical waves of rolling white rock, I squinted my eyes as I emerged from the shadows and into a sun-baked, fossilized grove of gargantuan gnome hats that protruded up to 90 feet skyward from the solid earth. I was breaking out in a sweat, but every successive step I took resulted in my peeling lips spreading into an ever-growing smile across my reddening face. Sharing space with structures I would have never imagined existed in nature, my mind was open to whatever I was about to encounter next.

The Southwest is full of strange surprises. You don't need mescaline to experience otherworldly visions. The land provides that in spades — as long as you know where to look.

Slot Canyon Tent Rocks New Mexico

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in northwest New Mexico is one of the more peculiar landscapes I've encountered in my travels. It feels foreign and alien, like you're walking on the surface of another planet. But instead of being unnerving, the place is downright captivating as it pulls you farther into its curious crevices. There's only one other place in the world I'm aware of that has the “fairy chimney“ rock formations similar to Kasha-Katuwe (which means “white cliffs“ in the Keresan language of the Pueblo), and you have to travel to Turkey to find it.

Slot Canyon Tent Rocks

The national monument feels remote, but it's easily accessible at just 44 miles from Santa Fe and 58 miles from Albuquerque. It'd be easy to spend the morning and early afternoon hiking the trails of the park and then hitting the road for an evening in the city. I camped at nearby Tetilla Peak Recreation Area (27 miles away) on a Friday night in early May and woke up with the sun to beat the Saturday crowd. And trust me, there will most likely be crowds if it's a nice weekend in the spring or summer. The parking lot is small and fills up quickly. The secret is apparently out on this place.