Bisti Wilderness near Albuquerque Part 2 | New Mexico

 

 

The Bisti Badlands is like a place you would imagine on Mars. As we hiked along, I felt like I was in a Star Wars movie. It was just unreal. So many unusual shapes molded into the rocks, with so many interesting colors. In one area, the rock could go from white, to black, then red, green, and orange. I really want to look up the history and geology of this area. I’m a little sad that there wasn’t much information at the trail head.

There isn’t much information online about the Bisti Wilderness in general, but we are certainly happy we decided to check this place out. As I said in our last post, there weren’t any marked hiking trails. Its kind of crazy to think that people are just allowed to wander all around these crazy rock formations in the Bisti Badlands. The whole time I was looking at these epic landscapes thinking “Insert couple here!” We would totally go back in a heartbeat.

We got an early start and hiked all day long. We found some hoodoos and petrified trees – which actually look just like normal wood, just extremely hard. I don’t know why I expected something different. There were lots of thorny bushes, so we ended up carrying Migo a good part of the time. However, after going to so many places that don’t allow dogs, we were happy to at least be able to take him along!

We hiked around until the sunset, then pulled over along the road to get a pic of the stars. No doubt anyone driving by thought we were crazy running around our camper with flashlights. But what else do you do when you’re in the middle of the desert at night? Oh my goodness, there were SOOO many stars!

Thank you for reading! If you’re ever in New Mexico, the Bisti Wilderness and Badlands are definitely worth a visit. ~Shelley Hartman, North Carolina + New Mexico Wedding Photographer