Station 2: Teepee Garden

Brian Wignall, Narrator

Station #2 provides a great view of the Tepee Garden .Pat Hester, a Geologist for the Bureau of Land Management provides some insight on these unusual rock formations.

Pat Hester, Geologist, BLM

This National Monument gets its name from the peculiar cone-shaped tent rock formations.  The tents have formed in 2 different kinds of rocks.

Some began as pedestal rocks or hoodoos formed in rocks laid down by moving water. These are narrow tent columns with boulders.  Over time, rainfall and snowmelt loosens sand grains and pebbles underneath the boulder caps until one day, the cap falls off leaving a bare tent. 

The conical type lack boulders.  These formed from rocks created by fast-moving avalanches of volcanic debris.  Hot gases and steam within the avalanche react, the liquids rush up towards the surface where it combines with the pumice to create the  tent mounds you see today.