Ever since I viewed photos of slot canyons in Utah’s Zion National Park, I have dreamed of hiking within the vertical rock walls reaching towards the sky allowing glimpses of sunlight into the mystical formations designed by nature over millions of years.
When there is a threat of rain, the possibility of flash floods increases causing torrents of water to fill the narrow canyon walls carrying various forms of debris cutting through the soft rock for millions of years, resulting in a great variety of colorful rock shapes and forms. You must always be aware of the weather when planning a hike in any slotted canyons.
Sometimes most locations are in remote hidden areas, which adds to the travel adventure experience.
I always thought my first hike of a slotted canyon would be the Narrows in Zion National Park. However, Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico was and will be a pivotal moment in my hiking life as my first slot canyon hike.
There is a certain visual beauty of the slotted canyon walls reaching several feet into the sky with trees, and shrubs growing out from the walls.
A slow-moving tarantula was a surprise since rain the past few days was intense in the canyon area. There is a section of about 30-40 yards where I felt like a goat climbing upwards to the rewards of the hike.
The hiking trail leads you out of the narrow canyon walls onto a Mesa with vistas to take your breath away at 6,760 feet above sea level.
The tent rocks themselves are cones of soft pumice and tuff beneath harder caprocks and vary in height from a few feet to 90 feet.
As I write this blog post, I’m excited knowing my future is bright with the number of locations I will hike and experience, and yet the spring of 2018 cannot come fast enough. 🙂
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