Stop #8: Bisti Badlands/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area, NM
- Denisse Storti
- May 7, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 31, 2023
If you look up Bisti Badlands you'll see images that seem to belong to another planet. It was this otherworldly experience that drew us to stop at this location following our time in Colorado. We decided to make this our first boon docking experience by camping at the main parking lot, which is BLM land and on Google maps looked spacious enough for our RV. Since this was our first time doing this, we opted to be cautious and planned to only stay there for two nights figuring one full day would be enough for us to explore this area.
The access road to the parking lot is gravel and felt very long and bumpy while towing our RV but we took it slow and eventually got there. We arrived late in the afternoon and by that time, the parking lot was emptying out. We secured a prime spot on the side of the lot and set up our fifth wheel. From this main parking lot we had access to the south wash, named Bisti Wash. We decided to rest that afternoon and save the exploring for the following day.
We enjoyed the golden sunset that evening and then came out of the RV once the sky had darkened to see the stars. The moon was out at that point so it wasn't as mind-blowing as we hoped, but we still saw many more stars than we had in a while. We caught a photographer going out earlier that day who was planning to camp out among the formations in order to capture the night sky with his camera. He mentioned that he would probably get his best shots at around 2-3a, but while we could've tried getting up at that time, to see if more stars were visible then from the parking lot, we preferred to sleep. :)
The next morning we set out on our adventure as soon as we were done with breakfast. This was in late March so it was still on the cold side in the early and late hours of the day. We dressed in layers, packed some snacks and plenty of water, and off we went. Bisti Badlands does not have marked trails, and due to it's landscape, it's easy to get disoriented. To avoid getting lost, we took our GPS with us which Paul had loaded with the coordinates he found on a BLM page. Soon after we started our hike we started seeing changes in the landscape and before we knew it, we were among some of the coolest formations we have ever seen and it all kept getting better the further we went.
We went up and down hills, across dried up water beds, and visited some of the popularly photographed areas such as the 'Rock Garden', which we chose as a rest/snack spot as it had places for us to sit, the 'Cracked Eggs' or 'Alien Hatchery', 'Hoodoo City', and 'Petrified Cove'. These were all amazing to look at but if we had to pick a favorite it would probably be 'Hoodoo City' which lies in a sunken area and looks like it's straight out of a Dr Seuss book. The kids loved sliding down to this area (we came from above but you can probably access it from below too) and walking among the hoodoos. It's a remarkable place and worth seeing from both angles, above and below. The 'Cracked Eggs' would probably a second favorite as these rocks had the coolest patterns on them and truly looked like big alien eggs. All the petrified wood was also amazing to see as there are no trees whatsoever anywhere in this area. It is said that six thousand years ago, the waters of the last age melted exposing the wood seen here and eroding the land into all these formations.
We hiked approx 5 miles that day and were pretty tired by the time we returned to our RV, as we did a lot of going up and down hills and walking on sandy terrain. Word of caution, this area does warm up quite a bit towards the midday/afternoon so we did end up taking off most of our layers. It would probably be suffocating to do this in the summer considering there's little to no shade as you're walking around. Check the weather for rain as well, as we read that Bisti was not a good place to explore when wet. We went in a dry time and we still got mud on our shoes. Also, if you go exploring the roads in your car, be careful not to drive into wet areas or venture off road as it's very muddy and swampy even if it hasn't rained that day. Once we were resting in our RV that afternoon, following our hike, we heard a knock on our door. A couple had gotten their car stuck in the mud a quarter mile down the parking lot road and had not been successful getting out. Paul unhitched our truck and left with the only straps we had (not truly rated for towing but better than nothing) and with some effort was able to pull their car out of the muck.
So our first boon docking experience turned out to be a success. We didn't run out of water even though we all showered and washed dishes and our solar panels did well to keep us going during these three days. This was a fun family adventure. The hike was fairly easy for the kids (till about the last mile back) and one they enjoyed as it gave them lots of areas where they could play pretend: they surfed, hoverboarded, pretended to be royalty in rock thrones, pretended to get lost in mazes, etc. It's a magical place and an experience we won't forget.
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