Bisti Wilderness Part 1| New Mexico

 

If you are anything like us, I’m sure you’ve never heard of the Bisti Badlands. Actually, before this trip, we probably couldn’t have named any hiking areas in New Mexico. New Mexico is full of wide open spaces and Native American Lands. Driving through, we made sure to top our tank off every time it got half full- because there are many very long stretches of road with absolutely nothing down them. No gas, no, food, and no water. However, the obvious plus to this sort of place is a plethora of beautiful places untouched by man.

We knew we would be driving home through New Mexico after making some stops in Arizona. We had tried doing at least one hike in every state on our way home, so we did a quick google search to find something to do. When the photos of Bisti Badlands popped up, I was determined to get there. It was a little over an hour off the main highway, close to Farmington New Mexico.

On our drive in, we saw a native american man herding his sheep in the pasture along the road. We stopped to chat with him and he was very friendly. He told us all about his sheep and told us he was happy to spend his days outside. Much of the land surrounding the Bisti Wilderness belongs to the Navajos. It was a pretty cool experience to be able to pull off the road and hear about his life.

When we arrived at the Bisti Wilderness parking lot, there were a couple other people there. One lady was so surprised to see us and said that she has hiked here for years and never saw anyone else. It certainly is not a popular destination- though incredibly beautiful.

It was a pretty warm day in the desert, so we hosed Migo down with our outdoor shower to cool him off for the hike. There really weren’t any designated trails in the Bisti Badlands,  and the map didn’t tell us too much, so we wandered around to see what we could see. It was just unbelievably breathtaking. Like a landscape from outer space.

Migoand I thoroughly enjoyed our hike. So much, actually, that we took WAYYY too many pictures to include in one blog post. I’ll show you more of this epic landscape and its night skies in our next post.

Thanks so much for reading! ~ Shelley Hartman, North Carolina + New Mexico Wedding Photographer