King of Wings and Alien Throne

 On the 17th of Nov we drove from Farmington down hwy 371 to BLM road 7650. A few miles past the turnoff the day before on BLM 7297. 10.1 mile out 7650 you turn onto a two track road just after a cattle gap and proceed one mile to a corral and windmill. That is the trailhead on Alltrails for King of Wings (KOW). But the two track continues another mile SE to a waterhole that cuts 2 miles off the RT distance.

Walking less than a quarter mile south of the waterhole, after climbing under the barbed wire fence there, you come to the edge of the Chinle formation. Clay hills cut by washes making navigation difficult.

The clay area seemed to go forever with no vegetation at all.

We came to this wash and followed in west and then south. Staying high would have been better.

There were two mud rabbit holes and various spots where erosion made the ground questionable.

We came out into a wider wash with solid footing that led in the general direction of KOW.

Walking south along the edge of the clay hills there are various coves with hoodoos.

Heading toward a small gap in the hills where we got our first view of KOW

Comming from the east as it worked out, the best way to get up there was by going around to the end of the ridge and walking up from there.

We passes a petrified hamburger on the way.

Small balanced rock next to the KOW

Wlaking up the end of the ridge this is what you see.

Shooting up from underneath this is what you see.

Size reference

From there we headed south across a very wide wash then across a wide plateau before we could see the next valley where Alien throne is. It turned out to be Hoodoo heaven.

From our first viewpoint we saw a group coming in from the south on the recommended trail.

Looking down on the hoodoo area where the named formations are. Alien Throne is left and higher than center.

Bisti Badlands New Mexico, november 2021

 Nov 15 -19 we went to Farmington as a basecamp for exploring that part of NM. The plan was to spend a day each in  Bisti Badlands, Ah shi sle pah, and Chaco canyon.

In Bisti we planned to see the "egg hatchery" "Stone Wings" "Petrified wood" and anythig else in between.

The Bisti trailhead is about 40 miles south of Farmington. There are 4 miles of good dirt road leading to a large parking lot with a restroom.

From the parking lot you walk NE in a large wide flat wash to various points of interest. The entire wash is about 2 miles long.

There are many odd rock forms.

This one is known as the "Paint pallet hoodoo"

The "egg hatchery" is about 1.5 miles up the wash on the right.

It is a flat plain with oval shaped rocks that weather into unsual paterns.

A few hundred yards further on is an area with lots of petrified wood. Wandering around in and out of coves  on the edge of the wash there are many hoodoos and lots of petrified wood.

This was a large petrified log. 45 ft long.

Backside view of the log.

Detail of another one.

Another one

Another one.

Another one.

Bowling ball factory?

Muffin

Clay hills

Red rocks.

Stone wings.

????

Manta ray

General view of the terain.

Finding the way through this landscape without trails was difficult.

7.5 mile hike total. Almost all flat.