Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

Kasha-Katuwe means "white cliffs" in the traditional Keresan language of the Pueblo de Cochiti


















These really aren't cliffs, though. Usually formations like these are called hoodoos.



These rock formations in New Mexico offer a unique opportunity to study the effects of wind and water erosion on deposits left after pyroclastic flow. The conical (tent) shape is because (per the BLM website) "perched on many of the tapering hoodoos are boulder caps that protect the softer pumice and tuffa below. Some tents have lost their hard, resistant caprocks and are disintegrating."




The tents range anywhere from a few feet to more than 90 feet tall, but that is not all there is to see here. The Monument is home to myriad petroglyphs. There's also an abundance of southwestern wildlife like the whiptail lizard (below).


It almost looks to me like something I'd expect to see in outer space, not in the U.S. The world is more interesting than I think it is sometimes.