This beautiful area of northern New Mexico is filled with Volcanic Cones, Mountain Views, and a deep gorge that wasn’t actually cut by the Rio Grande river. Unlike a lot of canyons, the 50 miles Rio Grande Gorge was not formed by the river but the river follows the natural course of a tectonic shift in the ground which tore this scar across the landscape. The Gorge is part of the larger Rio Grande Rift which is fascinating and which splits New Mexico in two. It separates the Colorado Plateau on the west side of the rift and it goes from the Colorado Border to Ciudad Juarez to the south. The White Sands National Park is within the rift as well!
The Monument is full of whitewater rafting opportunities, hiking trails, hunting, fishing, camping, and mountain biking. The rift, the river, and the area has been used as a natural highway by ancient mammals, pre-Clovis peoples, the Puebloans, the Spanish, and Anglo-American settlers for longer than we can imagine.