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. 🙂