Bisti Badlands March 28 - april 1, 2022

 This time we took members of Around the Bend Friends to this area. There were about 17 that went out of 26 that originally signed up. The weather did not cooporate. The first hiking day was 80% chance of rain. Then winds came up to about 50 mph, and the last day was cloudy only. But we managed to see all the main points of interest.

Bisti is in NW New Mexico about 40 miles south of Farmington.

First on the agenda was the main Bisti wash to see the cracked eggs and petrified logs. The parking area is off a side road about 35 miles south of Farmington.

The road to the trailhead was in good shape but the rain the previous night made the wash sticky with clay that stuck to your shoes and was slippery. We didn't hike the entire planned hike because of the conditions and because the rain started up again.

All the walking is through flat open terain like this photo.

This is about 1.5 miles from the start of the hike. It is called the Cracked eggs.

Hoodoo with a petrified cap rock. There are a lot of petrified logs in the alcoves just east of the Cracked eggs.

A few of us posing behind one of the long logs.

We call this one the Big Log.

Contrasting rock colors.

Lichens on the petrified wood

The second day we planned to do the King of Wings hike and continue hiking south to the Alien throne for a 7 mile hike.  However the rain started up again the next day  when we arrived near the trailhead.  

We didn't want to hike in the rain with the 50 MPH winds that were forcast. Also, the last two miles to the trailhead is a  2 track jeep road through pastures that would probably be  very muddy.

We turned around and headed back to the hotel.....But wait...the rain is stopping. Why not  drive around to the southside and find the Valley of Dreams trailhead to see what we can salvage of the day. There are two trails on Alltrails in this area. The KoW, and Valley of Dreams. They are considered two hikes but can be connected together from either trailhead with about 2 miles of cross country to connect them.

The Valley of Dreams trailhead is on a grassy knoll with views north to our destination located just left of a low line of red hills.

On the way there we diverted to explore any visible areas of interesting rocks.

The day had started out with rain but that stopped before we reached the Valley of Dreams trailhead but it was still cloudy and windy.

These are a couple of red hills just left of the low red line of hills visible from the cars. The Alien Throne area is on the back side of the buff colored rocks behind the black coal seam.

 

We worked our way around to the right looking for a way up thru the rocks to the back side.

Here we are working our way thru the rocks

The only blooming plant we saw. Desert Parsley

The formation known as the Alein Throne

This area is sometimes called the Alien Hatchery

The Stone Camel

This was named by a friend of ours as The earth offering up cheese.

Little mushroom rocks 

Wild horses

All of us infront of the Stone Camel

After the hike on the south side to Alien Throne, we went back the next day to complete the King of Wings hike that was rained out that morning.

The hike to KOW is in a different kind of landscape. Instead of being in a wash it crosses Chinle clay hills where nothing grows.

Navigating can be difficult if you come to a  canyon you can't cross. There is only a intermittent trail and it is not evident till about a quarter mile from the car, and it doesn't go all the way to the KoW.

Comming up out of a gully just before reaching the edge of the Chinle formation and the start of a broad wash. The KoW is of the edge of the Chinle and the Alien Throne is about 2 miles further south.

The KING of WINGS

We returned by way of canyons in the Chinle. There were 3 mud rabbit holes to climb through

We then drove around to the part of Bisti that was rained out as well on our first day. We started this time on the north side at the Hunter wash trailhead to hike to the Stone Wings.

On the way there is this very thin tall hoodoo. It is almost visible from the car and the easiest path tothe stone wings would pass to the left of it.

Mud arch

One of the wings.

I clinbed up to the Wing and looked down at the others.

This is how the wings look when aproaching from the car using the wide wash and passing to the left of the tall thin hoodoo.

Petrified stump in the wide wash nearth the north side of the tall thin hoodoo

Large stump that fell over. About 4 feet in diameter

The rain was comming again on the way back to the cars.