Bisti Badlands, early May 2018

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Dinosaur eggs, Bisti Bandlands

Before we left for this weekend I planned a route using my Garmin taking back roads from Chaco to Bisti.  Looking at the roads with Google earth I felt pretty confident we would make it to our destination with no problems.  The washboard road was in prime condition causing us to fishtail if we did anything over 15 mph.  Five miles into the trip we spotted the turn off to one of the county roads, the shortcut – except - there was a locked gate across the road next to what looked like a house that hadn’t been used in a while…  So much for the shortcut.

Employing the Garmin again our planned 30ish mile trip became a 70+ mile trip.  Since we were directed back to major roads I felt we would not run into another locked gate.  Passing along on 550 I spotted an unexpected sign for the De-Na-Zin and Bisti Badlands.  This turned out to shorten our 70 mile trip by about 30 miles.  This road was 25 miles of well maintained gravel.

Entrance to Bisti

All along the route we saw active oil pumping stations.  Occasionally we saw badlands off in the distance.  A few vehicles passed as we continued so I felt comfortable if something did happen someone would come along – eventually.

Once back on the main highway we found signs directing us to Bisti.  Another turn on to a gravel road then a few miles later brought us to a parking lot in the middle of nowhere; Bisti Badlands.

There must have been a dozen sun-baked vehicles waiting for their owners; none of which could be seen.  Openings in the fence gave us an indication of the general direction but we had only a few foot prints to follow.  My handheld Garmin with several stored waypoints; places not to miss, guided us through Bisti.

The landscape is almost moon-like, except for the sparsely spaced shrubs and few tufts of grass.  As we continue into the badlands we are surrounded by different colored layers of rock.  While the beach sand texture looks like you would sink with every step, the terrain is very hard.  If loose gravel or sand doesn’t accumulate you do not see footprints.

I would not want to be here during the summer.  We arrived around 11, full sun, but a cool breeze; quite comfortable.  By the time we left, about four hours later, there was an occasional warm breeze with the ever present cloudless sky.  The sun reflecting off the light gray terrain adds to the warmth.

As we are hiking I have the feeling of being in a greatly oversized house.  Walls of formations would appear.  We would pass through an opening to the other side and it would be different; different colors, different formations, different rocks - different.

Petrified wood

In all, our 4+ mile hike is very easy, we follow along an arroyo.  Any climbing was self inflicted; we wanted to see what was on the other side of whatever we were observing, true explorers.  We had lunch in the partial shade of one of the hoodoos.  There really is no shade here; we found a few square feet of shade and made it work.

Nicida with the dinosaur eggs

I have seen several photos of Bisti, the dinosaur eggs in particular.  While impressed by the formations I had no clue as to the size of the ‘eggs’.  The image with Nicida provides a scale.  While the eggs are large, this particular area is quite small, easy to miss.  It is maybe 100’ x 200’; the waypoints in the GPS directed us right to the spot.

Hoodoos

I’m sure there are many other formations to see within Bisti.  Once home I plotted our track from my Garmin then overlaid it on Google earth.  We did wander around on our way to the prime spots seeing many other interesting formations, but there are many more still waiting to be discovered.

I highly recommend seeing the Bisti Badlands.

It was a good day.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark