New Mexico - Bisti Badlands
Northern Section
Little visited and largely unknown, the Bisti Badlands is an amazingly scenic and colorful expanse of undulating mounds and unusual eroded rocks covering 4,000 acres, hidden away in the high desert of the San Juan Basin that covers the distant northwest corner of New Mexico, yet this area is just one of many similar regions in the region, the remainder even less publicized. The badlands are administered by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management), are free to enter, and are known officially, but less evocatively as the Bisti Wilderness Area. There are no signposts pointing the way to Bisti from any nearby towns, but the usual approach route is along NM 371 from Farmington, the largest town in the Four Corners region - this heads due south through wide open prairie land at the east edge of the great Navajo Indian Reservation, which extends for 200 miles across into Arizona. After 36 miles, a historical marker records the history of this area and of the nearby Bisti Trading Post, now derelict, while the main entrance to the badlands is 6.5 miles further south. Bisti is the smaller component of a 15 mile wide wilderness area that also includes much larger De-Na-Zin Wilderness which is equally colorful and even more remote, although partially covered with vegetation.
(americansouthwest.net)
New Mexico - Bisti Badlands
Northern Section
Little visited and largely unknown, the Bisti Badlands is an amazingly scenic and colorful expanse of undulating mounds and unusual eroded rocks covering 4,000 acres, hidden away in the high desert of the San Juan Basin that covers the distant northwest corner of New Mexico, yet this area is just one of many similar regions in the region, the remainder even less publicized. The badlands are administered by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management), are free to enter, and are known officially, but less evocatively as the Bisti Wilderness Area. There are no signposts pointing the way to Bisti from any nearby towns, but the usual approach route is along NM 371 from Farmington, the largest town in the Four Corners region - this heads due south through wide open prairie land at the east edge of the great Navajo Indian Reservation, which extends for 200 miles across into Arizona. After 36 miles, a historical marker records the history of this area and of the nearby Bisti Trading Post, now derelict, while the main entrance to the badlands is 6.5 miles further south. Bisti is the smaller component of a 15 mile wide wilderness area that also includes much larger De-Na-Zin Wilderness which is equally colorful and even more remote, although partially covered with vegetation.
(americansouthwest.net)