Bisti Wilderness Area (4/8 & 4/9/2016)

In previous visits to Bisti, one or two cars in the parking area was pretty much it.  The people in those cars might never be seen all day.  This time was much different.  When I arrived on a Thursday, there were already eight vehicles in the south lot, and another three in the north lot.  Several were RVs, such as trailers or truck campers, people like me who wanted to get the full experience of staying there.  By Saturday, more than twenty vehicles came and went during the day.  Obviously, word has spread (on the internet) about the wonders of this area.

It was nice having an opportunity to meet so many people of similar interests.  Several were professional photographers, such as Alex Tracy who tent-camped there for five days despite some cool temps at night.  Alex does a lot of night photography, so he spent several cold nights in the hoodoos, but got some amazing photos.  He and I also teamed up for a couple daytime hikes. 

I also enjoyed meeting Martin and Karina (from Germany), Bill and Kate (from Vermont), Patricia and Mike (new full-time RVers) and Tina (another new full-timer), not to mention quite a few whose names I failed to get.  Several were from other countries, including Germany, Canada and Sweden.  Many of them mentioned having seen internet photos of Bisti and decided to see it for themselves.

The overcast that greeted me on arrival turned into rain the following day, off and on the entire day and well into the night.  There was plenty of wind to go along with it.  I stayed indoors most of the day, except when a rainbow appeared in the afternoon and I ran out into the muck and mire to get some photographs of it.

By late morning the next day, the new drainage system had done its job, so Alex and I took a hike to the "Wings" section, enjoying a beautiful day.  Along the way, we passed lots of interesting formations and went through some rugged terrain.

It was difficult to tell exactly when we reached the "Wings" or when we left it.  Here are a few photos that are representative of that entire area.

Bisti Wilderness Area (4/7/2016)

Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area in Northwest New Mexico is a very special place.  Seventy million years ago, it was a river delta or swampland near an inland sea, when this part of North America was located about where Panama is today.  Accumulated silt from various sources, volcanic ash and the remains of plants and animals were compressed over time into many varied layers of different compositions.  The uplift of the Colorado Plateau and the melting of the last glaciers in this region combined to erode the area and form some of the most unusual and interesting formations on the planet.  Soft soil supporting harder rock led to the creation of hoodoos, where the lower soil erodes faster than the rock above.  Some of the rock layers were "glazed" by underground coal fires ignited by lightning. The colors range from white, gray, green, black, purple, brown to red.

This is my third trip to Bisti, with stays of several days each time.  No matter how many times you see it, you can never see the entire 45,000 acre wilderness area, besides which it changes color with ambient lighting changes, and the shapes are constantly modified by wind and rain.  It is a desolate place, one with the darkest skies and loudest silence you can imagine.  The prevailing soil layer is a finely ground clay-like silt that becomes very sticky when wet.  It is unthinkable to walk on it after a rain, although the BLM has done a good job of improving drainage for the area.  Not only does it dry more quickly now, but the drainage ditches seem to attract more birds and a few rabbits now.

The day I arrived was gloomy and heavily overcast, not the best conditions for photography.  Nonetheless, I ventured out and snapped off about 100 shots.

The red rocks seen in many places are small shards of sandstone that were glazed by the underground fires.

People who visit like to play the game of imagining what each particular rock or hoodoo looks like.  Some have become well known by the name given by early visitors.  I think this is a sturgeon.

It can be difficult to access particular formations, even though GPS coordinates are readily available on the internet.  GPS will provide a direct path to the desired location, but this may entail walking and climbing over some wicked terrain.  Often it is wise to take a longer route and go around some of the large hills.  Climbing them can be tricky due to soft soil and loose rock, and you wouldn't want to damage the fragile formations.

One of the more popular areas is known as the "Egg Factory", "Egg Hatchery", or Cracked Eggs".  I don't find it as appealing as others, but everyone who comes to Bisti wants to see this.  This photo was taken near dark, when the sunset failed to develop the lighting I had hoped for.

Here are a few of the individual rocks found in the Egg Factory.  I really don't see how they came to be seen as eggs, they look more like marine animals to me.

Sea Turtle?

Oyster?

Clam?

Here is the sunset from that evening.  Not bad, but it just didn't light the eggs as it often does.

Acoma Pueblo (4/5-4/7/2016)

I like to visit the Acoma Pueblo (tribe) anytime I'm in this area.  They have a casino, hotel, truck stop, and a very nice RV park with reasonable rates.  I didn't recall any problems with the WIFI here, but this time it has not worked well, forcing me to go into the hotel to access the internet.  It may be the site where I'm parked is just too far from the tower.

Not far from here are two National Monuments, El Malpais and El Morro, that I've enjoyed in the past.  This time, I'm looking to try some back roads that are new to me, particularly roads that lead into the mountains north of the Pueblo.  Asking some of the life-long residents for advice got me nowhere, so I just struck out on my own to explore the area.  Just before sunset on the day of my arrival, I ran across an old Catholic church that is probably still in use.  Catholicism has been practiced by many of the local Indians since the Spanish conquered the area in the 1600s and forced their religion on the natives.

St. Joseph church

 As the sunset developed, I found a place to take a few photos.

The sunrise the next morning was also pretty good.  I have the feeling there may be lots of sunrises and sunsets in your future travelogues.

My explorations took me into Laguna Pueblo, which is right next to Acoma.  This pueblo has a strict rule against photography within their village proper, so I can't show you some of the interesting buildings and neighborhoods.  However, I did get some shots in the mountains and canyons surrounding the village.  One formation struck me as unusual, although I never learned its name.

I then came upon a road into Encinal Canyon, so gave it a try.

I immediately began to see stud piles along the road, a sure sign that wild horses are in the area.  (Herd leaders leave these manure piles to mark their territory.)  Sure enough, I soon came upon a small band of horses.  While most of them ran a "safe" distance away, one brave (or naive) young guy never moved as I drove past him within five feet.

Farther down the road, I encountered some ruins.  These were not the 800 year old ruins of the Anasazi I sometimes run across, but more modern structures perhaps 100-200 years old.  It may have been a village, or possibly a mining camp, but I saw foundations for at least a dozen buildings.

I drove about eight or ten miles into the mountains, but found nothing more of interest.  I'll never know where the road led as it wound its way higher and higher.


Returning to the main road, I took a road into Old Canyon that I had noticed earlier.  It was a pretty drive with even more wild horses in several herds.

My day ended with another pretty sunset.

Alabama To New Mexico (3/29-4/4/2016)

The drive across the several states was mostly uneventful.  I did enjoy a visit with my cousin in Mississippi, and felt very fortunate to dodge the bad weather systems that kept coming across the region.  I learned that a tornado touched down near where I had stayed in MS, but it was the day after I left.  All across MS and AR, there was plenty of evidence of the deluges that had been occurring.  Ditches, creeks, rivers and lakes were all overflowing, while many fields were also under water.  Ducks swimming in one field seemed to be eating the seeds that had floated to the surface not long after being placed there by the farmer, possibly for the second or third time.

I did take time for a quick trip into Oklahoma to visit another Whispering Giant, located in Beavers Bend State Park near the town of Broken Bow.

Oklahoma Whispering Giant

Once I reached Tucumcari, NM, I slowed down and started enjoying my trip.  Tucumcari is located on I-40 near the border with Tx.  I've driven through quite a few times, but never stopped before.  Checking campground reviews, I learned that most of the campgrounds in town have closed, so I stopped at one said to be operating and suitable for an overnight stop (not a destination).  Cactus RV Park was once a Route 66 motel re-purposed to an rv park by installing hook-ups in the parking lots.  The buildings are still there, but haven't been used as a motel (or even maintained) for a long time.

Other establishments in town still reflect the old Route 66 kitsch that once lured travelers to stop and spend money.

Moving on, I spent a couple days in Albuquerque, a town with lots to do, but most of which I've done before and didn't care to do again.  Petroglyph National Monument has three units, and I had visited only one of them in the past.  So, I chose to visit the Rinconada Canyon unit and photograph the petroglyphs.  The canyon hike is about 2.5 miles, a lot of it in sand, and was disappointing with regard to the petroglyphs that could be seen.  A sign pointed out one petroglyph said to be halfway up the ridge, but I never saw it.  The sign noted that lighting was a big factor in seeing the petroglyphs, suggesting that shortly after sunrise or shortly before sunset would be best.  Unfortunately, the park is only open between 8am and 5pm.  Eventually, a few petroglyphs were visible, but not the number I had seen in the Piedras Marcadas Canyon years ago.

I've stayed in several different RV parks in Albuquerque, but this time tried one I had not used before, called Enchanted Trails.  It's a nice enough park and allowed me to rest from driving so much and also catch up on laundry.  The park, consistent with its Route 66 location, has several vintage trailers available for rent.  A couple of them are accompanied by a vintage Hudson automobile to complete the 1950's image.

New Mexico has a reputation for having fiery sunsets, so I did get out one evening to capture a couple photos of a pretty nice one.