07 Jun feeling out of this world in the Bisti Badlands
Tuesday May 21
Aaron and I reunited with friends and family at the Tico Time Bluegrass Festival which is held not far from Durango, CO in Aztec, NM. Since we were already out on the western edge of New Mexico, we used the geographical opportunity to explore some more gems of our new state. After a recovery 24 hours in Farmington, NM catching up on emails and freelance work, we headed the 40 miles south to the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness for two nights and two hikes.
Bisti Wings Trail
We arrived at the trailhead late in the afternoon, but with plenty of daylight we departed on a short hike up a wash to find the “Bisti Wings” formations. Like many desert hikes, there wasn’t so much a trail as the dry riverbed wash to follow. We meandered as the geology grew stranger and the light slowly lowered closer to the western horizon.
We wandered through the rocky desert terrain, eventually forgetting about following any kind of wash or trail and climbing up above the dry riverbed for better views of the jaw-dropping oddities all around. Finally we came upon the “Bisti Wings”… a perched trio of wind-eroded rocks looming high above our heads.
As the sun lowered we turned back towards the van, grateful for easy visual cues to lead us back through the maze of otherworldly features.
Wednesday May 22
We parked further into the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness for the night on BLM land around the trailhead for our second hike: the Bisti Wash.
Bisti Wash
We began hiking the Bisti Wash around 11a, but luckily the heat was minimized by some heavy spring winds that were blowing near constant throughout the latter half of the each day.
The first half mile was across the open desert, but the wash soon split into several threads meandering through hills and scattered formations that grew from random boulders to stacks and towers.
We slowly perused the Boneyard, the Tabletops and found several piles of petrified logs! I’d never seen any with such vibrant textures. This pile of “wood chips” is all petrified shards, rock hard.
One of the final formations held a Golden Eagle nest towering over the desert. It had to be at least 10 feet across. Wild sight! Our last bit of mileage through the wash loop took us to the Cracked Eggs — an area littered with 3 foot boulders that are seemingly cracked and melted into egg shapes.
We finished our 6 mile loop around 3p and were both thoroughly impressed with the variety and strangeness throughout this land, and obviously continued into the beyond for miles!
Deborah Anderson
Posted at 07:00h, 10 JuneThanks for sharing … a beautiful part of our earth I have never seen!!! Enjoying your adventurous spirits!!
sarah
Posted at 14:57h, 12 JuneThanks Aunt Deb!