The Bisti Badlands in New Mexico

The Bisti Badlands, also known as “De-Na-Zin Wilderness,” is a vast 45,000-acre wilderness area in the high desert of the San Juan Basin in New Mexico. The name De-Na-Zin traces back to the Navajo word for “crane,” a name choice likely stemming from the fact that petroglyphs of cranes are etched into rocks in the south part of the wilderness area.

In addition to the extraordinary “rock art” involving cranes, at Bisti you’ll also find formations of sandstone, shale, coal, and silt imbued with every color of the rainbow, from striking blue and white tones to alluring shades of red and purple, brown, and black. These formations come in the shapes of wings, eggs, bones, anchors, and all sorts of other strange alterations. So strange, in fact, they were the backdrop of the 1977 film Sorcerer.

The history of Bisti began about seventy million years ago when the badlands were part of a vast river delta with lush vegetation on the border of an ancient sea that covered much of New Mexico. This sea is often referred to as the Western Great Interior Seaway and it divided the United States into two separate land masses during the Cretaceous period. As hard as it is to imagine, try to picture a dense rain forest flourishing with dinosaurs roaming over the lands and giant crocodiles lurking in the marshes — that’s likely what this dry, eerie landscape looked like millions of years ago.

Due to a multitude of geologic forces, layers of clay and other sediment deposits built up around the river delta over a span of millions of years, trapping the remains of the rich biologically diverse plant and animal life of the delta. Around twenty-five million years ago, the sedimentary layers were uplifted with the rest of the Colorado Plateau. This uplifting slowly began exposing many of the sedimentary layers and as the last Ice Age receded about six thousand years ago, melting glacier water flowed through the area, carving through the rock layers and producing many of the formations we see today. Most of the badlands are made of sandstone and part of the Fruitland formation while much of the multi-colored terrain in the northern section of the wilderness is Kirtland shale.

One word of caution: before exploring Bisti, make sure that you are very well prepared. Since there are no marked trails in this vast park wilderness, you will just be wandering along the ravines and the valley floor. The directions below will send you to the main parking area, starting you out at Alamo Wash, the main “wash” (or canyon dry bed) of that area. From the Alamo Wash area you’ll be able to see some of the favorite rock formations, such as the Rock Garden and Cracked Eggs.

Once you head north from the wash (the dry beds of streams) through the hills, you can see one of the signature formations: the Bisti Wings.  The wings are unmistakable and are definitely one of the strangest rock formations found in this region.

In addition to the Bisti Wings, you’ll find tons of gravity defying balanced rocks and hoodoos scattered about the area. Hoodoos, like the one pictured below, are rock formations that take their odd shapes due to a harder, more resistant layer of rock resting on top of a softer, more erosion-prone layer of rock. As wind and water erode the rock, the softer layer is removed more quickly than the top layer and what’s often left are odd, toadstool shaped rock formations like what can be found at Bisti.

Be careful about venturing into the surrounding hills of the badlands without a GPS or a compass because hiking through these hills with no route markers is akin to taking a stroll on an unfamiliar planet. If you do get turned around or lost, find the main Alamo Wash area and follow it westward. As further explained in this link, the canyon wash will eventually lead you to the main road, which you can then follow back to the parking lot. Be aware that when traveling along the canyon wash areas flash floods do happen during strong rains. So if there’s a chance of rain occurring prior or during your planned visit, you may want to rethink your plans, especially if you’re inexperienced in visiting this region.

In addition to the otherworldly rock formations, if you head towards the “Eagles Nest,” you are likely to come across lots of petrified wood, perhaps even entire tree stumps, which serve as evidence of the lush forests which dominated the landscape millions of years ago. You might even stumble upon some fossils, as excavators have uncovered a variety of dinosaur bones and plenty of other varieties of fossils in the area. Just be careful as you make your way around, however, because these soft sandstone formations are extremely delicate and it doesn’t take much to destroy them.

The Bisti Wilderness Area is home to nesting golden eagles, ferruginous hawks, and prairie falcons. Ferruginous hawks are the largest of the North American soaring hawks, and, with a massive wingspan of fifty-three inches, they are often confused with eagles. However, they can often be easily identified by the dark V appearing on their primarily white underside. Ferruginous hawks are quite territorial, often getting into fights with other large birds, though only the great-horned owl, golden eagle, and bald eagle are usually capable of outdueling this large raptor.

The nesting season of these birds is from February to July and during this time they can be easily affected by humans encroaching into their nesting territory. Simply by approaching too closely to these birds can cause them to abandon their young for good so do your best to keep several hundred feet between you and these birds.

The best time of year to visit Bisti is likely either the fall or the spring. Sandstorms are more common in the Southwest during the spring, so fall might be the absolute best time if you can plan for it. Summer out here in the desert is, of course, going to be a scorcher, so you’ll need to make ample preparations if you are heading out during that time of year. Photographers looking for the best shots should plan on arriving and setting out on hikes before sunrise. The “blue hour” (the hours before sunrise and after sunset) is a particularly good time to photograph at Bisti. If you are interested in finding out more about photographing this rare terrain, then I encourage you to check out the photography resource link I’ve included in the section below. The link provides recommendations on how and when to photograph specific formations in the park and is extremely helpful.

Tips

• As pointed out here, there are some distinctly colored orange mounds in the badlands that can serve as navigation marks to help you from getting lost.
• The Bureau of Land Management oversees this wilderness and strictly forbids collecting any rocks, fossils and petrified wood. Also not allowed is climbing on any of the structures and travelling in groups of more than eight people.

Directions to Bisti Badlands

The local city of Farmington states:

The Bisti access is off State Highway 371 at Road 7297, about 40 miles south of Farmington, NM or about 46 miles north of Crownpoint, NM. Follow the graveled Road 7297 for about 2 miles to the parking area. Please note that Road 7297 does not go through the wilderness as marked on most maps and may become impassible in wet weather.