Spring 2024 Southwestern Swing, 4.01.24 - 5.06.24, Part 6, The Bisti Badlands
For the most part, the wild adventure factor during our trip so far had remained fairly tame. By coincidence, it seemed to get a little more adventurous with each new place we had visited. This changed in a big way during this next part of our journey.
I have stated numerous times how much I enjoy the wild badlands of America. From Badlands National Park in South Dakota to the beautiful badlands of Anza-Borrego State Park in California, we love all the weird and wild geology that defines these places. Long ago I began to see photos of a place called the Bisti Badlands in northern New Mexico and it has been very high on my list of places to explore for several years now. The Bisti Badlands are actually just one small part of a much greater area known as the San Juan Badlands. To keep things simple, this area lies in northwestern New Mexico, south of Farmington and west of Santa Fe. Much of this huge area is on Native American lands, although some parts are administered by the Bureau of Land Management. On the surface it is a high desert plain, seemingly devoid of any life. Flat and expressionless, it is an extremely harsh and unforgiving land.
The badlands of the San Juan Basin feature four distinct components. Most widespread are the badlands themselves - undulating mounds of mud, clay and soft sandstone, in subtle shades of yellow, brown, pink and purple, plus black and white. They are generally found beneath the edge of a mesa or alongside a drainage, and extend up to 20 miles at some locations. Sprinkled across the badlands are innumerable spires, hoodoos, caprocks, ridges and other weird stone formations, created by millennia of erosion of harder rock layers within or between the softer strata. The third feature is petrified wood, ranging in size from tiny flakes to complete trunks up to 50 feet in length and 6 feet across at the base, in places still in an upright position, complete with roots. In the Southwest, only the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona has a greater concentration of mineralized trees. Fourth, least obvious but perhaps most important, are animal fossils. Many complete dinosaur skeletons have been excavated in the badlands, and small bones may still be seen by the watchful visitor. This last paragraph was copied from a website called americansouthwest.net.
As far as I can tell, there are eleven distinct regions of interest within the San Juan Badlands. After much research, we based the Navibahn back in Farmington at the Bluffview RV Park for a four night stay which would allow us three full days to explore the San Juan Badlands. Our plan was to enter into a different part of the badlands on each of the three days.
Much of what I had read about this area was just how remote it is. There are no paved roads, often no signs, no official trailheads, not even any trails! Much of the dirt roads are bentonite clay and impossible to drive on even with a high clearance 4WD vehicle if it rains. Many people had talked about how hard it was just find where to park their vehicle and even more talked about wandering around in the desert for hours, never finding what they came out to see. Yet sifting through all the information, I found GPS tracks and GPS coordinates for various specific features. Going into these badlands without a navigation app would be extremely difficult. I use an app called Gaia GPS and had downloaded numerous routes and points back at home so I could use them offline when I reached New Mexico. Ultimately, I found it much less daunting to navigate in the badlands than I had read. GPS was definitely not only helpful, but in my opinion, essential.
For our first foray into the San Juan Badlands, we left an hour before sunrise. On tap was a hike through the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness on a route called the Bisti Loop. After all that talk about how hard it was to find anything, it was surprisingly easy to find the trailhead. I believe this is the most developed entry point. When we got to the trailhead there were already several vehicles there that had camped overnight, although not a creature was stirring when we arrived. There was a picnic area with covered tables and a bathroom.
The sun was just rising as we started our hike. It was true that there was not a trail per se. We just hiked up a very wide wash of hard-packed white dry mud. We used my GPS track to follow a route that led to many named features along the way.
This was the view from the trailhead. No trail to follow and seemingly featureless desert in front of us.
Off to the north were bright orange hills that were starting to feel the first rays of dawn. To the south was a wall of brownish cliffs. The walking was very easy on the flat, sun-dried mud. We hiked about a mile up the wash and then angled to the south towards the brown cliffs. Tucked up against these cliffs was our first feature called the Chocolate Hoodoos. Far more entertaining than the wash itself, we clambered up into an array of slender pillars with larger brown stone caps. Still trying to work our way in an easterly direction, we often had to backtrack when a route dead-ended. We would walk deep down on the floor of the wash and then have to climb up through a gap between two towering hoodoos to proceed. Slowly we picked our way up to a higher point in the chocolate hoodoos where we could again see the main wash. Sunshine was now starting to kiss the tops of the hoodoos and it was magical.
The Chocolate Hoodoos
High vantage point in the Chocolate Hoodoos. The main wash can be seen in the far distance.
Climbing up and over the Chocolate Hoodoos was really fun but it got us off of our GPS track we were sort of following. We wanted to get back towards the main wash at this point because we didn’t want to miss the most famous feature of this loop called The Alien Egg Hatchery. As we made our way through the Chocolate Hoodoos back to the main wash we came upon a really nice cluster of white hoodoos. Bridgit and I were having a blast so far on this hike and it was slow going as we stopped every few steps for photos.
Sunrise on the south wall of the Bisti Loop
Bizarre rock formations near the Chocolate Hoodoos
Cluster of white hoodoos
According to my research, the Alien Egg Hatchery could be found about 1.7 miles from the trailhead. The topography was so convoluted along these walls that even with GPS it was no small feat to find the eggs. We thought we found them but it turned out to be just another cool cluster of wind-carved rocks on the floor of the wash. I had seen photos of these formations so I was pretty sure this was not the spot. By using the GPS and following it a bit further to the east, we rounded a corner and there they were!
The Alien Eggs were rounded oval rocks lying on the flat floor of the wash. The dark brown eggs had lighter swirly patterns on the tops. Some truly looked like open eggshells with the yolk still inside. We agreed that the Alien Egg Hatchery was the perfect name for these rocks!
Alien Egg Hatchery
Alien Egg Hatchery
Alien Egg with the Queen Mother
Alien Egg Hatchery
From the Alien Egg Hatchery we headed a short way due north about halfway across the main wash to the Bisti Rock Garden. This was an area of very dark chocolate colored rocks all strewn about an area of maybe an acre. The contrast between the grey mud of the wash with the dark colored rocks was striking. Continuing, we worked our way back towards the south side of the wash to find an area full of petrified logs. One that we found was easily fifteen feet long, resting on a bed of sandstone pillars.
Just to the east of the petrified logs was a really beautiful little side box canyon that was chock full of incredible hoodoos. We stopped here for a snack and a break before moving on. While there I decided the terrain looked so fun I ran back, got the Jeep and we did some serious off-roading (not really)!
The gate to the box canyon
Some of the hoodoos inside the box canyon
Just one of the great Jeep trails we drove!
One of the more famous features of the Bisti region is normally accessed from a different trailhead a bit further north. It is called the King of Wings. It is a wind-carved sandstone wing that defies gravity by extending over thirty feet long. How it remains is a mystery to me. Along our hike we did find some wings but none were nearly as long as the King of Wings.
Pawn of Wings
After our break we hiked a long stretch up and around the Eagle’s Nest, which was a very tall hoodoo that looked sort of like the Matterhorn from certain angles as we passed by. On a side note, the only wildlife we saw the entire day were lizards. The ones we saw ranged from maybe four inches to nine inches from head to tail. We have seen so many lizards in our desert travels that they don’t bother us at all. They don’t bite, crawl on you or try to get into your food. We find them to be totally harmless and enjoy seeing them.
The Eagle’s Nest
Typical lizard along the route
Despite using my Gaia app, it wasn’t that easy to stay on the GPS track we were attempting to follow. Deep washes and tall mounds look very different on an app compared to the real thing. Several times we began hiking up one wash only to discover we were veering off of our marked route. I would estimate we may have added close to a mile of hiking to our day just trying to stay on course.
As we continued to work our way east, we began to head up into a side wash that got much narrower the further we went. It soon took on the characteristics of a slot canyon. Here we were faced with a bit of scrambling to get up past several steps that were tight and high. Bridgit was not too sure about this stretch, but I assured her we were still on our GPS track and that it would open up fairly quickly. True to my word (guess?), after negotiating a couple of tricky spots, we climbed up into an open area high above the wash. This gave us a wonderful view of the entire length of where we had come from. And of course, due to our early sunrise start and the remoteness of the entire area, we had not seen anyone the whole day so far. We felt like pioneers in the wilderness. That feeling always adds so much to a hike. Another great thing about this hike was that were no signs, no trail and no rock cairns to show the way. It was true wilderness. Once we made it past the tight stretch and climbed the high mounds we were at the farthest point from the trailhead that we intended to go. From there we planned to follow the GPS track back to the trailhead on a return track that was slightly north of our outgoing track. Somehow we missed that route and ended up mainly coming back somewhere between our outgoing track and the GPS return route. This was of no concern. Once we were back in the main wash we just headed west and eventually it just funneled us back to the Jeep. Other than the 1.7 miles to the Alien Egg Hatchery, I hadn’t really calculated in advancve the total miles for our loop. With all the side trips and adjustments, we ended up hiking 9.6 miles. That was about six miles further than Bridgit normally wants to go but we had such an amazing time out there on our own and the hiking was mainly flat and easy that she did a remarkable job of not only going the distance, but enjoying every bit of it (except maybe the last 3/4 of a mile or so). We were tired but immensely satisfied and agreed that the full Bisti Loop on this particular day was one of the better hikes we’ve ever been on.
Bridgit entering the tighter stretch near the far point of our trek
Looking down at our return route from the high point at the far end of our loop
A different view of the Eagle’s Nest during our return
The end of a perfect day
We felt a huge sense of accomplishment after this hike. Once back at the Navibahn, we took a nap, showered and then met up with our friends Gary and Wanda for dinner. They have been a huge source of information on all kinds of places to hike throughout the southwest. Gary and I seem to be kindred spirits when It comes to research and taste in scenery. They live in Virgin, Utah and had driven out to hike with us the following day. They had hiked in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness before but our plans for the coming day would be new to all of us and we were super excited for our upcoming hike.