2022 Parks Road Trip Diary: Days 4-6

If you want a taste of desolate with a solid dose of weird, Bisti / De-Na-Zin Wilderness is the place for you.

Finding a place to sleep on Day 4

On the previous three nights, we had booked a site at a campground in advance, so we knew where we’d be staying and that we’d have a spot. This was the first night where we planned to do dispersed camping: free camping on federal land that’s usually in a site with little-to-no facilities (bathrooms, water, etc.), and is always first-come-first-serve.

We looked up a few “campgrounds” from the NPS website and found three potential places to stay. I was nervous because each was an hour drive from the others, and we were only on track to arrive around sunset, so if we found ourselves arriving at a fully occupied campground, we might be driving into the night.

Our first try was Angel’s Peak campground, and not only did we find a spot (phew!), but the scenery was incredible. There were actually plenty of open spots; we only saw two other small groups there, not even visible from our site. It felt so cool to have such a vast space to (almost) ourselves.

bad boy in the bad lands
the fact that it was sunset made it even better

Day 5: Exploring Bisti Badlands

The next morning we drove ~1 hour to the Bisti Badlands Wilderness Area. This was different from other hikes because there wasn’t really a trail, but just a large open space to explore.

this was the trailhead

We had a map that showed a few points of interest so we tried to route a path through all of them. But part of the fun was just being surrounded by the unusual landscape the whole time.

weird hoodoo patterns were everywhere
the dried dirt looked like peeling paint
which direction to go?
lots of these table-like statues throughout the area

Probably the most unique point of interest were the so-called cracked eggs, rock formations that somehow formed as layers of ellipsoids, a pattern revealed once eroded.

"cracked eggs"

This area also had a surprising amount of petrified wood. Being in such a desolate place, it leads you to wonder how there could have once existed trees this large. Must’ve been a very different-looking place ages ago! (I could probably google it, but I’ll just let it remain a mystery.)

petrified wood

There was also supposedly a rock formation called “alien woman” but we struggled to find it, at least in the spot where our map said it was. Maybe this was it? 🤷‍♂️

"alien woman"?

By the end of the hike we were pretty ready to be done with the hot, dry, desolate environment. But good timing – after one more night back at camp we would be heading to Colorado in the morning. Next stop: Mesa Verde National Park!

post originally written 7/7, backdated to match reality