Bisti Badlands Part I

Before I even moved to New Mexico I had once seen a calendar photo that lodged like a thorn in my imagination. It was of a place called the Bisti Badlands...a name to conjure with! Of course I assumed, based on the weirdly animal-like forms I had seen in the picture, that it was pronounced "beastie' badlands. How could I not want to go there? But I had trouble finding anyone willing to go with me. It wasn't that close, and would mean an overnight at least. At last I decided to go by myself, with Cassidy for company. I threw a pad and blankets in the car, got some food, the dog, and headed west. Just before getting there, I stopped to take this shot of some promising rock formations.

Finally I spotted a small sign pointing out a gravel road which it promised would take me to the fabled Bisti Badlands. The entire area is Navaho land, and I passed a small herd of their horses just after making the turn.

I drove into another world. I had expected some kind of signage, maybe a campground or outhouse at the least. All I saw were waves of pale eroded rock...or not rock, but rather very old mud, carved into bizarre shapes by eons of wind and water.

Cassidy was thrilled to be let out of the car at last. With no one around, I gave her free rein, and she went all coyote, running up and down exploring this strange new world, totally alert with all senses.

Cassidy in coyote mode.

The rock formations more than satisfied my expectation of what I'd see in a beastie badlands! To me these rocks recalled a scene in Yellow Submarine. Know the one I mean? Blue Meanies!

It was a place full of mysteries. Everywhere I went I found mounds of tiny tesseract tiles in shades of rust, sienna, umber, slate. They lay scattered on the surface of the mudstone, in roughly circular concentrations. It took me a while to figure out what they were, and how they could possibly be scattered on the top of ancient mud.

In addition to the broken chips, there were also tubular formations of similiar color running horizontally through the mudstone. They were crystalline and sparkled, looking quartz-like, though with dark pigmentation. Mystery!

I took this close-up, beginning to have a theory of how such a mineral formation might have come about. Now I feel I was really dense. I grew up calling myself a rock-hound, and should have gotten it sooner! Have you figured it out?

I finally came across this absolutely obvious piece of evidence just as I had pretty much reached the conclusion that the quartzite tubes and chips were petrified wood! The tile chips were all that was left of trees which had been standing when the area was hit by a devastating flood millions of years ago. Buried in mud, the trees gradually transformed to stone, molecule by molecule.

Eventually the mudstone which encased the trees eroded away. As the stone trees were exposed, they too eroded, succumbing to the devastating process of freezing and thawing which New Mexico now undergoes every winter. Vertical trees were prone to disintegrate as fast as they were exposed, because their structure, even though stone, was based on the structure of the living trees. Water was able to enter the vertically-oriented layers of the cambium and then freeze, expand, and break the layers apart bit by bit. All that is left is the shattered remains of an ancient forest. The horizontal tubes were roots.

Cassidy just laughed. She'd known it all along, of course.

Just about that time the storm which had been threatening all day finally began to lift. It had been cold and windy all day, and had almost felt like it would snow, although only the fall equinox.

Even as the day was coming to an end, the light now increased. I welcomed the sun with a grateful spirit, and was rewarded with a whole new experience of the area. Forms which had seemed flat now stood out in clear definition. And I continued to be amazed at the lack of human presence. Everywhere I walked it seemed my foot prints were the only ones there.

As the sun broke through in earnest, the full beauty of the mudstone carvings was revealed. I wandered around snapping more pictures of this dreamscape, which still had surprises in store for me. I will continue the tale in my next blog. Meanwhile, if you are interested, you can google Bisti Badlands and find many more posts about this amazing place.