September 19 2020

September 19, 2020

From Farmington, NM we drove forty miles straight south through scrubland and irrigated alfalfa fields to the Bisti Wilderness Area, a large BLM area of eroded Badlands. This area has grown more popular but is not serviced by any trails. Exploration is free-form. We started at the reputed North parking area. There were no signs whatsoever. Thankfully an Internet search provided guidance. Apparently the BLM is not encouraging visitors to use this ‘entrance’. Leaving the car we passed through an unmarked fence and hiked due east toward the rising sun. We soon encountered highly eroded Badland hills and ravines. I had downloaded some GPS coordinates of some interesting structures, but the coordinates turned out to be worthless. We soon decided we needed to climb atop the hills to determine our choice of direction in this geological maze.

From the top of one hill we saw some awesome ‘wing’ structures in the distance. At the end of the dinosaur era, when sea levels were much higher, most of the interior of North America was flooded. This part of New Mexico was a marshy river delta flowing into that shallow sea. Layers of silt, mud, sand, and coal built up along with volcanic ash. Limestone was deposited atop the layers. This limestone cap is more resistant to erosion than the mud below causing the formation of exotic hoodoos.

We see different versions of this limestone cap atop other hills. In one spot the base is barely eroded so the cap resembles a tabletop or dance floor. In other places the cap is distorted to resemble a seal or manta ray statue atop a pedestal.

The hills are mostly cream-colored, but a few are black because lignite coal beds formed from the millions of years of organic deposits in this ancient swampland. While the scenery is fantastic, exploration is laborious, as we need to navigate carefully up and down these steeply eroded mounds.

After two hours we hike back to the car and drive several miles to the South Bisti entrance. This one is a little further off the highway but is well marked and filled with a dozen vehicles. The several RV’s camped here make me jealous.

From the south lot we hike two miles northeast along a broad flat wash only intermittently broken by hills. So different than the scenery just a mile or so north. I use a set of GPS coordinates from the Farmington Visitor Center brochure for the Alien Egg Hatchery. They are closer this time but lead us to an empty spot. Frustrated, I enter a third set of coordinates off an Internet screenshot I saved on my phone. This set did the trick and led us right to our goal.

The Egg Hatchery is a set of several dozen ottoman-sized round rocks lying in an open valley. These limestone concretions have some brown patches and are ‘peeling’ like an onion. These features make them indeed look like large embryos. I could easily see them as fossilized versions of the eggs in the science fiction movie, Cocoon. To Aimee they look more like tortoises.

Trees were common in this Cretaceous Period delta. We passed several spots where petrified wood has been exposed and abraded into piles of ‘wood’ shavings. We use the GPS to take us to a couple spots where rock logs are intact and being weathered out of the cliffs. I am glad this third source of GPS coordinates is working. Otherwise we could have wandered this vast open area with little to show for it.

In many areas the surface has a crust of brick-colored stones. Apparently volcanic activity ignited an underground Coal fire that burned for centuries. The intense heat fired the clay layers turning them into a brick or pottery. These fragments provide much needed color to the otherwise drab silt and ash layers.

Our last stop is a large area of low-lying limestone wings. They are numerous but since they are only a few feet high, getting an interesting photo of them is problematic. Without sky for contrast, the colors are too monochromatic.

 

Since we have no RV and the only hotel is an hour back north, we call it quits in the early afternoon. Plus it is getting hot and my legs are tiring. We make the two-mile hike back to the car and begin the long drive home. An hour south of Bisti, we reach the Interstate. In this area, I-40 West follows the southern end of the Colorado Plateau and its distinctive sheer red sandstone cliffs. Once in Arizona we cut south and follow the same route we took when we visited Pinetop in July. It is a long downhill but very scenic drive across the Salt River gorge and down the Gila/San Pedro River valley. We reach Tucson in the dark. 

I am glad we made this difficult and time-consuming stop in Bisti. Having traveled the West extensively, we wrongly thought we have seen it all. Researching this stop made me realize that the American West has no shortage of amazing locales. The ones we haven't seen are just less famous and harder to visit but not necessarily any less impressive.

A quick Internet search made me realize the problem I encountered with the GPS coordinates. All three, while similar, were in slightly different units. Instead of standard degrees, minutes, and seconds, the problem directions were in decimal degrees. An embarrassing oversight for an engineer. I guess I needed ‘cheaters’ to see the tiny decimal point.

September 17-18, 2020

 September 17-18, 2020

We made another trip to Amarillo, TX to visit Aimee’s mom. I leveraged this trip to gain Aimee’s acquiescence to do some exploring on the drive back. Visitor services at BLM locations are usually non-existent so I decided we needed a hiking GPS. Aimee would quash future trips if we get lost and can’t find the car. After searching several stores in Amarillo, I think I found the only GPS device available in Amarillo. I spent an hour trying to decipher how to use this user-unfriendly tool.

We left Amarillo the next morning and drove west on I-40 to Albuquerque. There we veered northwest towards the Four Corners region. Just south of the Colorado border we reached the San Juan River valley and spent the night in Farmington, New Mexico.