WILD
To reach this destination and explore the sites on a WWB guided tour requires a full day tour. Overnight stays are not permitted. However, should you wish to extend your stay, motels and restaurants are available in the nearby town of Farmington, New Mexico.
DINOSAURS:
WALKING ON THE MOON
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ADVENTURE TOURS
Bisti De-Na-Zin Wilderness
Visit this GOOGLE interactive link for maps, pictures, and satellite view of the park and surrounding area
BISTI MAP:
Copyright 2016. Doug Heath. All rights reserved
Why Bisti? It Rocks! Well, the rock formations rock. The badlands were once part of an inland sea during the mid to late cretaceous period (65-70 million years ago) which slowly drained away and became a huge swamp area. There were once miles of large coniferous trees, ferns and other plants that are now part of the black coal and shale seams that you can see today. Some of the trees have become petrified and there are stumps and logs scattered throughout the wilderness. Much of the sediments contain a wide variety of fossils including dinosaur bones! Visitors should be aware that the petrified wood and fossilized remains are part of the wilderness area and should not be removed or disturbed. Over time sediments of mud and sand were built up layer upon layer burying the old plants and animals preserving them like a time capsule waiting for geological forces to reveal them again. Just such an event occurred within the last 10,000 years as the last ice age ended and water flowing from the north washed away most of the softer rocks and soils creating the incredible geology you can see now. The formations look almost extra terrestrial and remind one of pictures of other planet surfaces or a science fiction movie. They are, for lack of a better word, quite "bizarre". Some of the harder sandstone features sit atop softer mudstone in a way that seems to defy gravity and look very fragile. For this reason visitors should not attempt to climb on any of them as they could be damaged and so could you! The vertical features are referred to as Hoodoo's which are similar to pinnacles found in many desert areas but are varied in thickness are rough or crumbly in texture and are usually intermixed with hard and soft sedimentary rock layers. Other geology you might notice is the small hills with dark red "chunks" of rocks covering them. These were once coal and shale seams that "cooked" underground a long time ago. Over time minerals leached into the beds and changed it into the neat red clinkers that litter the hillsides
Where the pavement ends and the Best begins
WILD
BEST