Located on the Pararito Plateau in north-central New Mexico, the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument is a remarkable outdoor laboratory, offering an opportunity to observe, study and experience the geologic processes that shape natural landscapes.

Precariously perched on many of the tapering hoodoos are boulder caps that protect the softer pumice and tuff below. Some tents have lost their hard, resistent caprocks and are disintegrating. While uniform in shape, the tent rock formations vary in height from a few feet to 90 feet.

As the result of uniform layering of volcanic material, bands of gray are interspersed with beige and pink-colored rock along the cliff face. Over time, wind and water cut into these deposits, creating canyons and arroyos, scooping holes in the rock, and contouring the ends of small, inward ravines into smooth semi-circles.

The cone-shaped tent rock formations are the products of volcanic eruptions that occurred 6 to 7 million years ago and left pumice, ash and tuff deposits over 1,000 feet thick. Tremendous explosions from the Jemez volcanic field spewed pyroclasts (rock fragments), while searing hot gases blasted down slopes in an incandescent avalanche called a "pyroclastic flow."

The complex landscape and spectacular geologic scenery of the national monument has been a focal point for visitors for centuries. Before nearby Cochiti Reservoir was built, surveys recorded numerous archaeological sites reflecting human occupations spanning 4,000 years.

During the 14th and 15th centuries, several large ancestral pueblos were established and their descendants, the Pueblo de Cochiti, still inhabit the surrounding area. Kasha-Katuwe means “white cliffs” in the traditional Keresan language of the Pueblo.

The Bureau of Land Management considers Tent Rocks to be an "Area of Critical Environmental Concern," and as such their management policy is to make the area as accessible as possible while minimizing the impact caused by human visitors. They stress the old backpacker's credo, "take only memories, leave only footprints."

President Clinton proclaimed the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in January 2001. It encompasses over 4,000 acres of land that the Bureau of Land Management manages, along with additional lands of the Pueblo de Cochiti.

"The Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument represents much more than the protection of a special place. It shows our ability to work together for the sake of future generations."

Edward Sullivan, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, January 18, 2001.

The Monument's archeological sites reflect 4,000 years of human occupation. Long after the tent rocks were formed, early humans wandered the area in search of food. Archeologists have discovered artifacts from the Archaic Period (5000 BCE to 100 CE), including petroglyphs of animals, handprints and stick figures. By 500-800 CE, more settled tribes moved in and left behind remnants of small, one-room structures and evidence of corn and bean planting. Stone and mud dwellings gave way, during the 14th and 15th centuries, to the more complicated pueblos of the Tsankawi and Puye areas to the north of the monument. Ruins of several large ancestral pueblos remain. Descendents of these early tribes, the Pueblo de Cochiti, still inhabit the Monument area.