Bisti Wilderness Text May 16, 2008

One of the perks of being in the four corners area of New Mexico is the amazing geography in all directions. The Bisti De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a severely dry and wind whipped badlands. Not much grows there, though there is life. When water happens it is usually destructive. 
Dave C from the RE program and I went out for a hike, it's about 45 miles from Farmington. 

There are no trails, you just wander and explore, trying not to get lost. We followed a couple of washes east, and then connected to a wash where the sides began to grow. After a couple of hours the sides of the wash had grown to about 100' (30 meters) high and quite steep. 

When it rains there is pours and when it pours the land is so dry that it can't absorb water. It flash floods. At some point we had to scramble up the 100' sides, and expected to go over the top and down the other side and head back on a parallel route. Instead we had walked far enough to just have a massive expanse all around us. No visitors nearby of any kind. Remote, stark and beautiful.