Chaco and Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
I slept so well. That’s what a day of skiing and driving will do for you. I woke around 7:00 pm. I brought the snow with me to the Chaco Valley. It was so peaceful in the campground.
Wall Near the Campsite
Chaco Canyon Visitor Center
The visitor center in The Chaco Culture National Historic Park opened at 8:00 am. As I was entering, one of the volunteers came out and we chatted outside. He asked me to listen to the silence. I explained, that I had got out of my car last night and listened to the silence for a while. It was so nice to only here the wind blowing, an occassional bird tweet, and even the sound of snow landing on surfaces. Yes it was very quiet.
We went inside and he spent about 30 minutes talking through what the park had to offer. I watched the National Park Service movie for about 20 minutes which explained the Chaco Valley history and how the Navajo and Hopi tribes used the center.
I was disappointed that the weather was so bad. I decided that it probably wasn’t the best time to visit the ruins because of the weather. He said that this is actually a very good time to visit unless it is raining or snowing. The information desk gave me directions to Bisti Wilderness and they warned me to avoid certain roads. There was heavy mud in certain areas of the park and people were getting stuck and needing to be towed.
Bisti Wilderness
I stopped in Farmington, NM. To my surprise, there was a Starbucks, Planet Fitness and Subway close to each other. I grabbed a sandwich at subway. The cashier made a mistake and put my order on the woman’s order in front of me. The woman said to me, “I just bought you a sandwich, thank you for smiling.” I thanked her and she said, “Have a blessed day.”
It was another hour drive to Bisti Wilderness. Google took me down a road to a trailer with many brokendown trucks sitting around. I turned around and drove away. I found another selection for Bisti Wilderness Parking. I had already passed this 12 miles back on the same road. This required another shorter trip down a dirt road. There were cars from five different states in the parking lot.
I still had cell coverage and downloaded the Bisti Badlands Trail from AllTrails. It was a 5.5 mile loop that was rated easy.
The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a unique geological area located in northwest New Mexico, USA. It covers over 41,000 acres of land and is characterized by a stunning and otherworldly landscape of eroded badlands, hoodoos, and colorful sandstone formations. The area is sacred to the Navajo people and has been designated as a wilderness area by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness was formed millions of years ago when the area was a vast floodplain that was periodically covered by shallow seas. Over time, layers of sediment were deposited on top of each other, forming a variety of rock formations. Later, during the Late Cretaceous period, the area was uplifted and began to erode, exposing the unique geologic formations that are visible today. The area is also home to a rich diversity of plant and animal life, including petrified wood, fossilized dinosaur bones, and a variety of desert-adapted flora and fauna.
