Badlands Photo

BISTI WILDERNESS

Formation Name: FRUITLAND

Rock Type(s): Sandstone, Siltstone, Shale, Coal

Geologic Time Period: END OF CRETACEOUS

Time of Deposition (in millions of years ago): 75 to 73

Depositional Environment: wetlands, swamps, river deltas along a sea retreating to the northeast

Common Fossils Found: crocodiles, turtles, very early mammals, dinosaurs (e.g., Pentaceratops - unique to San Juan Basin- and duck-billed Hadrosaurs)

LINK TO BLAKELY

Formation Name: KIRTLAND

Rock Type(s): Mostly Siltstone

Geologic Time Period: END OF CRETACEOUS

Time of Deposition (in millions of years ago): 73 to 70

Depositional Environment: wetlands, swamps, river deltas inland from a sea retreating to the northeast

Common Fossils Found: Fish scales, dinosaurs (e.g., T. Rex and last of the sauropods, the Allamosaurus)

LINK TO BLAKELY

Designated as official wilderness back in 1985, theBisti Wilderness is the second San Juan Basin badland carved from the Kirkland/Fruitland formations. The sprawling 30,000 acre sculpture exhibition offers one of the most entertaining hiking experiences on the planet. A branching dry wash network provides entry to a gargantuan labyrinth beyond description. Never ending hoodoos and brilliant, color combinations overwhelm the senses. Throw in the 50 feet long petrified logs and you’ve got desert rat nirvana. The Bisti Wilderness is the only San Juan Basin badland widely known to the general public outside the region. I published the first national article in 1982 in Sierra Magazine when the fight to save this unique area from coal strip mining was beginning. Congress designated it and the neighboring De Na Zin as official wilderness in 1985. Since then the Bisti Wilderness has been regularly included in travel books, featured in photographic essays and been the subject of numerous magazine articles—some of them mine.

BISTI DIRECTIONS —The marked badlands can be accessed via State Highway 371 about 30 miles south of Farmington. Or also from US Highway 550, by first turning west onto County Road 7500 (Navajo 45A) at the Huerfano Trading Post about 15 miles south of Bloomfield, then taking 7500 for 25 miles over to State Highway 371, finally turning north onto 371 and following it several miles to the Bisti marker. A sign marks the turn east onto a few miles of dirt road into a small parking lot.

MORE INFO: Call Recreation Specialist Rich Simmons at the Farmington Area BLM Office—505-599-8900

 

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A photographic tour of New Mexico’s incredible San Juan Basin Badlands.