City of Rocks, New Mexico

The City of Rocks is an interesting place. It is a "city" of monolithic rocks that form streets that wind all over the place. While it does not possess the massively tall formations of other similarly named locations, it does cover a large area. Most of the formations are about one story tall. This would be a great place to spend the whole day, exploring, bouldering, or just having a picnic.

There are some features that make this place unique. These rocks cover a considerably large area, and because there are no full size trees, some pretty interesting views can be found without having to climb too high. In addition to this, because it provides some of the only natural shelter in the area, these rocks have history.

Pioneers enjoyed its shelter, but so too, did Native Americans, and you can see evidence of their presence in round hollows in many of the rocks where grain was ground into flour. And then, there's the formation of these rocks. They represent the long eroded ejecta from a prehistoric volcano.

When we visited, we only had about an hour or so to investigate, so we didn't go too far in or explore too much, but it definitely seems like a great place to spend the whole day. Another bonus: it's free. It's definitely a fun place to visit, whether you intend to play hide and seek, war, do a little bouldering/rock climbing, or try to find the rocks that look like things.

It's value is even greater if you live in the area, as it would definitely require multiple visits to really explore it all. I give this an A.