Travel Diary: 2023 Tour through New Mexico - Part 5
After breakfast on Wednesday morning, we left Vista Linda Campground and drove about 2 hours west to the badlands of Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness Study Area in northwestern New Mexico. We LOVE exploring badlands, so we were really looking forward to checking these out! Plus, we hadn’t really had much adventure time on our road trip so far. We were aching to get out and stretch our legs a bit.
“Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah” is a rough translation of Navajo words meaning “Salt, it is gray.” This U.S. Wilderness Study Area is a protected area of badlands with sandstone and clay formations located in what felt like the middle of nowhere. The area is rich in fossils and has some of the most eye-catching rock formations & hoodoos we’ve ever seen! Also, the ground is littered with unique stones and pieces of petrified wood.
On this particular afternoon, we had the whole area to ourselves. We spent over an hour in the blazing hot sun playing around and photographing the formations. Each corner we turned presented yet another unique rock sculpture carved by Mother Nature. We had so much fun exploring this little otherworldly landscape. Be sure to add Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness to your to-do list. It’s a must-see for anyone traveling through northern New Mexico.
Once we had enough fun at these badlands, we set the GPS for another set of badlands where we would be camping for the evening. We hopped in the RAV4 to take in some cool AC and headed north. Our destination? Bisti Badlands located in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area near Farmington, New Mexico. We first camped there back in 2018 on our trip to Utah. To say we absolutely LOVE camping there is an understatement. It's like we're pitching a tent on the surface of Mars! It's super-quiet, and there are over 4,000 acres of low-relief badlands to explore! There are countless rock formations, fossils and pieces of petrified wood to see. We're told there's even a 100 ft. long petrified tree trunk somewhere, but we have yet to find it.
Last time we camped in Bisti, we had the entire area all to ourselves. This time was just the same. The sun and sky were constantly changing all evening as we were exploring around. There are no set trails there, so you can pretty much explore at your leisure.
A gorgeous sunset.
We know the good spots. This ain’t our first Bisti rodeo!
We had VERY peaceful camp with a beautiful sunset. It was quite the show!! We had a moonrise in the evening, too. When we woke, the moon was setting and the sun was rising at the same time! Pretty damn cool.
The textures & shapes of the rock formations can be mesmerizing!
After we packed up our tent in the car in the morning, we took another 90 minutes or so in the morning to take in more of the stark beauty of this place. It's one of our most favorite places we've even been.
Add Bisti Badlands to your travel bucket list for a free, quiet AND mind-blowing place to visit/camp.
Our next stop would be pretty special. We were visiting a Native American pueblo perched atop a 365-foot mesa called known as “Sky City.” You’ll get to see this ancient pueblo in my next blog entry.
-Andrew