Farmington, NM - Lost in the Bisti

Interesting hike today into the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, more commonly called the Bisti Badlands. ‘Badlands’ has more cache than plain old ‘wilderness’. Actually, the Bisti is 45,000 acres of barren hills covered in broken shale with many strange shaped rock formations called hoodoos. There are no trails and you just walk any which way you wish though there is a map with GPS coordinates which will take you by the most intriguing of these formations. However, the hills are really not very tall so losing one’s way is difficult.

We made the mistake of following the map and ending up scrambling up and over the hills a great deal of the time. Was it fun? Sure. Was it interesting? You bet. Would I do it again that way? Nope. We couldn’t find one or two of the formations but, when we came down off the shale hills and into the large valley carved by the wash, we were fine. Here is the Bisti Arch. Hoo - eee. I expected a named formation to be a bit larger.

As we were standing by the arch, wondering if this small arch was really the named formation we were seeking, 4 others came over the hill, knit caps, gloves, down jackets and all. We pointed out the arch to them and they directed us to the cracked eggs (where I am sitting) and the petrified wood.

Then we walked back out through the wash and home.