Spring 2024 Southwestern Swing, 4.01.24 - 5.06.24, Part 8, Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness Study Area

The following morning after our great hike into the Valley of Dreams, our friends Gary and Wanda had to head back to their home. Bridgit and I had a similar plan as what he had done the previous day, only this day we had our sights set on going into the Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness Study area. The entry point is actually quite close to the spot we parked for Valley of Dreams but because it is a bit more to the east, most of the beta I had gathered suggested a different way to get there. Instead of going down 371 out of Farmington, the recommended route was to to head east to Bloomfield and take 550 to 57 and then take 57 west to the trailhead. Google Maps suggested an alternate road rather than follow 57 the whole way but since most of people suggested 57, I took that. Maybe this time I should have listened to Google Maps. 57 was certainly the most direct route, but it was in terrible shape. The road is composed of bentonite clay and it had been chewed up severely from whenever the previous rains had come through. It was really rutted and washboarded, but nothing our trusty Jeep couldn’t handle. I just wonder if Google Maps knew something we didn’t. Anyway, after eighteen miles of pretty crappy road, we came to a big sign for the Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness Study Area and parked right off of the road. There were only three cars parked there at three-thirty when we arrived. I get the impression that this is the least traveled area of the San Juan Badlands of the three places we visited on this trip. There wasn’t a ton of information available for this area on the internet, but I did have a GPS route and map of the area downloaded on my Gaia app.

Unlike the other two areas we hiked in that had no trail whatsoever, this hike started out on a closed dirt road. Almost immediately, we passed a couple hiking back out and shortly after that another couple hiking out. This meant only one other person was still out there so we were pleased that we would mostly have the place to ourselves.

**From the trailhead we followed this dirt track to get to the cool stuff**

After a little over a half mile we came to the top of a rise that gave us a wide-angle view of the area we would be hiking through. Down to our left was a large area of dark brown hoodoos. These were called the Chocolate Mushroom Hoodoos. I had a feeling that this area might be the coolest part of our hike so we opted to make a long loop hike and end up back at these hoodoos for my sunset shoot.

We headed over series of rolling high mounds before dropping down to the cracked, white desert floor. Following our Gaia route, we aimed northward, soon coming to a beautiful area of white hoodoos that according to my app included a feature known as Fossil Hoodoo. We found the hoodoo but did not see any fossils. Still, this area had much to see and explore and we spent a bit of time winding in and out of various nooks and crannies. We climbed a small tight step between two hoodoos to a sort of hidden higher flat shelf that led to several washes. We followed one a ways but it seemed to get away from the cooler features so we backtracked to where we had come in.

After exploring the area around Fossil Hoodoo, we made our way west across a broad section of sun-dried cracked mud. This section was maybe a mile and a half. We were looking for a feature called Birds Nest Arch but we never found it. We did pass through the Ah-shi-sle-pah Rock Garden which had a ton of shards of petrified wood mixed in with what looked like volcanic rock debris scattered over the desert floor.

**It was hard to comprehend how things grow here**

After searching for Bird Nest Arch we were pretty much at our turnaround point. To get back to the Chocolate Mushroom Hoodoos, we followed our GPS track along a great wall of rock with many little canyons and side washes. Even with GPS it was confusing and difficult to stay on course here and we tried a couple of side canyons that only dead ended. Along the way we went by the Yellow Hoodoo Gang and the Turtle Hoodoo. The Yellow Hoodoo Gang looked really cool but would have required some serious scrambling to get a better perspective.

We tried a couple of narrow washes to get back to our GPS track and both times we got boxed out so we backed up and went around another couple of points and tried a third wash. This one also seemed to dead-end, but I was able to climb a small mound at the end of the wash and saw a wide wash on the other side so I was sure that was where we were supposed to be. Bridgit and I climbed up and over and dropped into this beautiful side wash and now we were clearly back on our correct line.

Following the wash in an easterly direction, it soon narrowed up and became a very attractive canyon. Then as we rounded a corner, we looked up to our left and there were the Chocolate Mushroom Hoodoos!

Sunset was still a little ways off so Bridgit found a nice resting spot in the canyon while I did a photo shoot in the hoodoos. The bulk of the hoodoos were on the north side of the canyon, scattered over a wide area. They were fairly condensed and easy to travel through via assorted gaps between them. As I began to navigate my way into the Chocolate Mushroom Hoodoos I came across the one other guy besides us in the entire area. His name was Nick and he was also shooting until sunset. We chatted a bit and then we each went about our own way to photograph the hoodoos. Sunset was a little over an hour away so the light was fantastic. Rising above the hoodoos were huge rounded mounds of white, sunbaked sandstone etched with deep lines of water-carved ruts that created a beautiful surface for photographing. Climbing up to the top of these mounds I had a great view not only overlooking the Chocolate Mushroom Hoodoos but also a whole new set of hoodoos on a different section I hadn’t seen before. The moon was only two days away from being full and it rose up behind the hoodoos, adding even more to my composition options.

Just ahead of where Bridgit was resting, the canyon dead-ended at a high pour-off. Across from the Chocolate Mushroom Hoodoos we climbed out of the canyon to a hillside above that gave us a nice vantage point looking across the canyon to the hoodoos. Since we were looking to the north, the evening light shining west to east lit up the hoodoos wonderfully. Nick was also up there on the hillside and we shot the final minutes of sunshine together.

It was so peaceful on that hillside with only the three of us around to enjoy this incredible evening. Once the sun dropped below the horizon, the three of us stayed high on the hill and made our way just a short way to the east where we connected with the abandoned dirt road we had hiked in on. We said our goodbyes to Nick and he moved ahead back to the trailhead. The night was incredibly comfortable so Bridgit and I took our time just walking back the short way to the Jeep. Rather than drive back on the crappy road we had come in on, we used Gaia to navigate further west where we easily connected with the roads we had used to go to Valley of Dreams and then drove back to Farmington on 371 which turned out to be the better option by far.

**The Chocolate Mushroom Hoodoos (and Bridgit!)**

Our three days in the San Juan Badlands could not have gone better. Each of the three areas we visited had its own unique characteristics. The length of the hike in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness had a feel of pioneering adventure, the Valley of Dreams had the most bizarre rock formations we’d ever seen and the Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness Study Area gave us a sense of isolation along with the fantastic Chocolate Mushroom Hoodoos. We felt like we had gotten a really good sampling of what this incredible part of the country had to offer. The San Juan Badlands is a huge area and there is so much more to see than we had time for that a return visit to some of the other areas will certainly be in our future plans.

Spring 2024 Southwestern Swing, 4.01.24 - 5.06.24, Part 8, Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness Study Area

Spring 2024 Southwestern Swing, 4.01.24 - 5.06.24, Part 7, The Valley Of Dreams

Spring 2024 Southwestern Swing, 4.01.24 - 5.06.24, Part 9, Shiprock