The Bisti
Before we left San Francisco, we each picked one spot that was a must visit for us. Lisa’s was Glacier National Park and mine was the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area. Most people have never heard of it. It’s not even on a lot of maps, but if you’re a landscape photographer, Bisti is a necessary pilgrimage.
No trails, no campground. There aren’t even any clear maps of the area! It takes work to explore here, but the payoff is an eroding wonderland of hoodoos and deep washes that are unbelievably fun to explore and photograph.
Bisti was once an ancient swamp and shallow sea. Sediments left behind formed mudstone, coal, and shale, which were protected by a later addition of sandstone. The water flowing off the rising Rockies cut through the sandstone to the softer layers beneath, forming the spires and winding washes seen today.
We arrived on Monday, and I immediately dragged Lisa out on a hike after downloading a GPS app to her phone. I had never experienced total silence before, but we paused over and over marveling at the quiet. Not even the wind was stirring, there was simply no sound. We hiked for hours each day, never seeing another person, pausing often to marvel at the crazy formations.
The sunsets were not confined to a small patch of western sky; they were 360 degree shows that lasted well over an hour. By 9pm each night, the sky was littered with stars, more than we have seen since Great Basin! The Milky Way stretched above us in the darkness and we hugged and smiled and spun about in awe. At 4am the wind rattling the Minnie woke us and out our window the barest sliver of orange moon was rising just above the badlands. Lisa was initially confused, thinking it was the sun popping over the hills, and she kept checking for the next thirty minutes to confirm over and over again that it was in fact the moon. We’d never seen such a spectacular moon rise.
Our fellow explorers, all photographers or their patient significant others, arrived as excited as I was and were eager to chat about which direction to hike in order to see the most interesting formations. On Tuesday, a government truck rolled up and out popped Sherman, the BLM New Mexico social media man. We were resting after our second big hike of the day and he came over and chatted with us before he hiked out with his equipment for sunset and star shots. We love that we continue to meet so many fun and interesting and engaging people on the road.
We’d been a little nervous about dispersed camping at Bisti because we had no idea if others would be around, what the atmosphere would be like, or how safe we would be. Turns out, we were in good company, with super friendly Canadians the first night and then other Californians the second night. With the exception of the wind that woke us the first night, we slept like babies in the comfort of the Bisti.
I’m so happy that we were able to spend two days exploring here, but water, the element that made this amazing place is also forcing us to leave. The forecast called for rain and Bisti is not a place to be in the rain because the clay and coal soils turn to sticky slippery muck and no car or even shoes can make it through what the locals refer to as gumbo.
