Tent Rocks National Monument, NM

Only minutes away from Cochiti Lake is a long dirt road that will lead to the jewel on Cochiti reservation- Tent Rocks.
You will pass the gate where tribal officials check you in. One of the guards was prior Marine and hit it off with Tony as soon as he saw his Military ID. Needless to say, we didn't have to pay admission.
We have met so many nice people on the reservation. The locals enjoy when they see how much you value their land and culture, and they will take their time to explain their story.
The land is simply breathtaking and hiking Tent rocks is definitely recommended when you visit Cochiti.
There are two trails, the cavern trail and the scenic trail. We chose the latter.
Once you walk to the foot of the mountain and look up you are surrounded by gigantic boulders, the further you walk into it the passageways get narrower and wind upward. A good 1.3 mile hike up until you reach the peak. The last stretch up is a bit tricky, but definitely doable. Once we reached the peak we had to make it to the furthest edge possible, otherwise we wouldn't have experienced the feeling of completion.
On that edge we found a big rock, sat down, rested and soaked in the stunning view.
I was honestly overcome with happiness, peace and a deeper connection with nature.
We were too excited to notice how hungry we were getting. It was time to make the descend back to base, which of course was much quicker. Overall the scenic trail is about 3 miles round trip and takes about 2 hours , if you stop to take pictures or sit down to rest.
Landon was ready to hike the cavern trail, but hunger overruled that decision .
We piled into our Jeep and headed back to camp.
What an awesome day that was.