The Badass Bisti Wilderness Area
From Chaco Canyon, we followed Route 7500, a featureless gravel road that goes from nowhere to nowhere. We passed right by the parking lot for the De-Na-Zin, or eastern section of the Bisti-De-Na-Zin Wilderness. There is no correlation between surface roads and most maps of this area.
We decided to give it one more shot and made our way north on 371 to the western, or Bisti Section of the Bisti-De-Na-Zin Wilderness. We were underwhelmed by the weather-beaten sign that marked the entrance to a large mud flat. Where the log book should be, there was nothing but a handful of stones, dead batteries and shotgun shells. I whipped out my new "100 Hikes in New Mexico" guidebook and re-read the glowing description of the Bisti Badlands.
Nothing to do but pack some water and snacks and head up the wash. In about a mile we began to understand what this area is all about. Quoting from 100 Hikes: "The duck-billed dinosaurs who lumbered across the muck 70 million years ago would be flabbergasted to see what's become of their claustrophobic swamp. Gone are the braided streams, giant turtles, and tree ferns; in their stead are rainblow-colored slopes of shale — the erstwhile swamp mud — dotted with living matter turned to stone."
This is one of those areas that makes me wish I knew more about geology. The piles of light gray rock underfoot looked like wood chips turned to stone. The rock in the dark grey veins looked and felt exactly like charcoal from a fresh campfire. In between there were stumps of much harder rock in shades of burgundy and white, with veins of pale yellow that might have been ... fossilized tree sap.
South of Crown Point, Route 371 crosses over an impressive ridge of red sandstone that must be related to nearby Canyon de Chelly. With temperatures dropping rapidly, we decided against camping in favor of a night at the historic El Rancho Hotel in Gallup.
Constructed in 1937 by the brother of movie magnet D.W. Griffith, the El Rancho Hotel became a temporary home for many Hollywood stars who filmed in the area, including Ronald Reagan, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn and Kirk Douglas.
On a slow slide back to Tucson, we detoured through the Petrified National Forest and were dazzled by this under-visited national park.
It's hard to imagine that 225 million years ago, this windswept plain was a lush rainforest. 200-foot tall trees were buried in a sea of mud, and the wood was eventually replaced, cell by cell, with multi-hued silica.
Thanks to a tip from Joe of Joe & Aggie's Cafe in Holbrook, we took Route 77 all the way back to Tucson, eliminating Phoenix traffic and cutting our travel time to a mere four hours.
This trip left me marvelling at the variety of natural wonders that grace the Four Corners Area. First Mesa, Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, the Petrified Forest, Bisti Badlands, Grand Staircase-Escalante — a lifetime is barely enough to hit the high points!
