Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

Kasha - Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is a small nature reserve on the type of a National Monument in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It protects a desert valley with bizarre erosion forms in volcanic rock. President Bill Clinton dedicated it in 2001 in his final days in office and handed over the management to the Bureau of Land Management, an agency under the auspices of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The name Kasha Katuwe means " white cliffs " in the language of the Pueblo Indians of the region.

Description

The National Monument is located on the Pajarito Plateau in Sandoval County in northern New Mexico. Before about 7-6 million years ago, the volcanoes of the Jemez volcanic fields encountered west of today's protected areas volcanic ash from pyroclastic flows leaving a several hundred meter thick layer of pumice and tuff rock that where it is not protected by embedded harder layers was quickly eroded. In the sanctuary is a maximum of 180m deep valley, in the middle part of the flanks tent-shaped rock cone stand ( the tent rocks ). They emerged as the valley itself by erosion of the soft rock.

From the parking area, an approximately 2km long paved path leads through the lower part of the valley. In the back of a 1.8 km long dirt road leads through a slot canyon and rises to the plateau, from which one has a view over the valley with the erosion forms and the neighboring chains of the Jemez Mountains and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This part is locked in the rain on the plateau.

In the area grow several species of juniper and pine trees, including pinyon pine and ponderosa pines. The undergrowth form manzanita bushes. At sheltered sites also bushes of currants. The fauna includes Kestrel, Golden Eagle, Rotschwanzbussarde, wild turkey and various types swallows, as well as coyotes, elk, mule deer, squirrels and several species of lizards.

A settlement of the area can be since about 4000 years demonstrate 14th- and 15th-century Indians of the Pueblo culture small housing developments from Adobe mud brick and unhewn stones. Already in the 1990s, the trail has been designated by the area as a National Recreation Trail. The Bandelier National Monument and its famous Painted Cove in the immediate neighborhood, the areas but do not touch and there is no direct connection through the intervening mountain range.

Access to the area is carried out by the Interstate Highway I 25 south-west of Santa Fe via a spur road through the territory of the Cochiti Indians, who reserved the right to terminate their reservation at special celebrations for all outsiders. In this case, it is not possible to visit the area.

Details

Weathering

Winding paths at the foot of the valley

The path through the sometimes very narrow valley