"Ridin' down the canyon..."

On day 8 we visited Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, a place that is relatively new and so obscure its not actually on most maps... we decided to go there because we'd passed the sign for it on the highway and it sounded cool.



The interesting geological formations are eroded tuff, similar to Bandelier. That baby thunderstorm in the distance grew to massive proportions by the time we left the park.





One of the trails headed up a narrow side canyon.



Along the way we found a nice petroglyph of a snake.






The canyon at its narrowest was considerably cooler than the rest of the trail, and often only a few feet wide.



Later in the day we stopped at Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, where there are thousands of images pecked into the lava fields west of the city. This petroglyph is of a macaw, which the people of the area acquired via trade with people from South America. Macaw feathers were used in ceremonial headdresses and the like.







We walked around the old part of the city and ate at this little cafe for dinner, which is in an adobe house that dates from just after the city was founded in 1706.

Click me to see where we went.