We have had our eye on Bisti Badlands for awhile and a free three day weekend in September was the perfect opportunity to finally visit. Steve found a race he wanted to run in the area, so we decided to combine the two for a prime New Mexico weekend.

Bisti (pronounced Bis-tie) is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, along with the adjacent De-Na-Zin Wilderness, and is located in the larger San Juan Basin in northwest New Mexico. Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness covers 45,000 acres of badlands and was once a coastal swamp of an inland sea. When we visited Petrified Forest National Park we learned that area in pre-historic times looked like present day Costa Rica - a factor in how the petrified wood was created. I imagine Bisti looked similar - there is petrified wood (and some large logs) scattered throughout the badlands. The waters of the pre-historic inland sea deposited various layers of sediment that remained when the waters retreated. These included mudstone, shale, and coal and volcanic activity also deposited ash. Harder sandstone layers were deposited on top, which acted as caprocks that aided in hoodoo formation when erosion later happened. Some hoodoos are also capped by limestone, formed when water infiltrated ashy layers and left behind lime deposits.

The main parking area for Bisti is easily accessible a few miles off of New Mexico Highway 371 forty miles south of Farmington. The road is a nice gravel road and suitable for passenger cars. Luckily it's easy to get to the parking area as we arrived in the dark Thursday evening. Camping is allowed in the main parking area and we slept in our truck camper (there is an outhouse and a covered picnic table, but that is it for the parking area - come prepared!). We finally got a look the next morning and frankly, from the parking area it's not too impressive. It's flat and not much to indicate there is a fantastical land of hoodoos awaiting you. We planned to do a large loop and set off across the flatlands to find us some badlands and hoodoos.

Different parts of our hike had different flavors. The first part was flat, featureless land punctuated by sections of hoodoos and cool rock formations. As we looped back around, we encountered more of the badlands area - clayish hills of various layers and colors where we followed washes and did some route finding to locate particular rock formations. Bisti is a perfect place for exploration - there are endless hoodoos, crazy rock formations, cool rocks, badlands, and views to find. Otherworldly was a word often on the tip of my tongue - these landscapes definitely feel not of this planet. It was easy to imagine Mars rovers Perseverance or Curiosity to come ambling around a corner. They certainly would have looked at home in Bisti!

According to Steve's watch we walked around 7-8 miles and we were out for around three hours. It was a warm day and with direct sun, so that was about the right time for us. I feel like we only scratched the surface of Bisti and I anticipate we will be making future visits. After finishing our hike we continued south on 371 to head to Grants. We had a late lunch at El Cafecito, stopped at the grocery store, picked up Steve's race packet, then headed up to Mt. Taylor (about a 30-40 minute drive). The start line for the Mt. Taylor 50k was around Rock Tank Shelter and we found a spot to park our truck for the night. It was a lot cooler up the mountain and the trees and greenery were a change from the crazy badlands we were exploring earlier in the day. It was a pleasant evening at camp and we went to bed early for an early wake up call the next morning.

The race started just shy of sunrise and after seeing Steve off at the start line, I hiked the three miles to the summit of Mt. Taylor (called Tsoodzi in Navajo), a dormant stratovolcano. Mt. Taylor is 11,301 feet and the high point in the San Mateo Mountains. The first part of the hike was through the forest and the aspens were starting to turn yellow - it was a pretty hike. The views opened up in the meadows and above tree line and it was a gorgeous day. I hung out at the top, enjoying the beautiful day and views until Steve came through at mile 24. He was making good time and looking good. I made haste to hike down to be sure to see him at the finish line. He ended up finishing in six hours, which was good for 26th place out of 135 finishers (11th in his age group). He had a great race and loved the course.

The beauty of a 50k versus a 100k or 100 miler is Steve finished around lunch time and we still had much of the day left. We retraced our steps through Grants and back north on Highway 371. We planned to visit another area of the badlands in the San Juan Basin, this time in the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness. This route had more travel time on gravel roads, then a rutted track and we found the parking area in what felt like the absolute middle of nowhere. Again, looking at our surroundings - flat scrubland - we couldn't believe we were close to another eroded landscape of hoodoos and fantastical formations. Our main destination was a formation called King of Wings and it was about a mile walk from the parking area. This area looked different from where we visited the prior day - this area seems to hold unlimited surprises! There was no question when we found King of Wings - super cool formation that seems to defy physics. We spent some time here admiring King of Wings, then made our way back to the parking area just in time for sunset. We had a quiet night camping before heading back home Sunday morning. We had one last stop en route - Shiprock. Tsé Bit’a’i - rock with wings - is the Navajo name for Shiprock, a volcanic rock formation rising 1700 feet above the surrounding lands. After seeing Shiprock from afar multiple times, today we finally got a closer look. Pretty impressive!