Can I have a ticket to Mars, please? Part 1

I think everyone dreamed of conquering space and exploring the planets. At least once, while still being a child... Have you ever thought of walking on the Mars surface and wandering around? Just looking... I definitely have... 

We discovered this place during one of our trips but didn't have enough time to really hike there so we decided to return later with only a goal to roam at this inhabitant place and explore it like a planet.... So one Saturday morning in April we started our space journey. Don't believe me? You are right, I don't believe myself either, but when I am looking at the pictures I don't believe we stayed on Earth all the time. Because it looks like a Moon, or Mars, or Jupiter but definitely not our planet...

That day we were heading to Bisti/De-Na-Zin wilderness, located near Farmington, NM. Even though we started early enough it took a while to get there so we were a bit too late, but had no chance but to start exploring. We dropped the car at the parking lot and walked in the desert, moving on the valley bed toward the hills on the right.

 

Bisti/De-Na-Zin wilderness is a really incredible place. First it is wilderness. Literally... You can find nothing here. No road, no building, no cell phone reception... Nothing but wild badlands. Second, it looks so strange that you start believing that you already left the Earth and landed somewhere on Mars or, maybe, Moon (sorry, I guess I am repeating myself, but this is how you feel there). The landscape around you looks like you just landed inside a sci-fi movie. Actually... when I said "nothing is here" I was wrong. You can find some water but strictly after a rain and just for a short while (but A LOT OF WATER). If you follow the story to the end, you understand what I mean by saying that.

Actually there is a road that brings you here, so looks like I was wrong when I said "no roads"? Probably not, cuz I'd better say direction, not road. It is a dirty road and don't even try to drive there after the rain. Because actually it is not a "dirty" road, but "clay" road, meaning it becomes really slippery and muddy if mixed with the water. But... That time we were fine. The road was dusty as a hell, but easy to drive on. But it was only thing that reminds you about civilization and once you leave the road you are on your own. It is a Navajo reservation land and even though you can find some fences, everything else makes you feel like you travel not only deep in space but also back in time...

One day it was a sea bed and layers added up for millions of years. Now the wind, the water and erosion expose these layers. Most of them are clay meaning every time the water touches them the landscape changes. But some layers are sandstones (and they are often mixed together) and this makes the landscape so amazing and also fast changing. The top layers exposed now are about 50-70 million years old. Right, no one knows for sure if this is 50 or 70... but... listen, who cares. The difference is only 20 (million) years so...

There are a few things that make this place unforgettable and incredible. First the shapes and how quickly everything is changed. Second, the colors. We roamed there for just 4 hours but we found at least 50 shades of gray (pun is not intended), beige, brown, orange, black, white... Don't forget - at least 50 shades of each color! Third, variability... You found something and just 30 yard forward the shapes are different and the color and the feeling. You move to the left and 50 yards on your way and you don't see anything similar to what you found before. 

This place is famous for diversity and confusions. This is a huge reason why when you plan your trip you need to have exact GPS coordinates of the features you are interested to see. Because if you don't have an exact location you can easily miss the sight. You can walk just a few feet lefter or righter and... miss it. Don't believe me? Try it yourself! I know that because when we missed some of the spots and needed to follow GPS literally, to the feet, just to find out we walked close but not close enough...

Bisti/De-Na-Zin is a huge territory. Technically, Bisti is the area where we were and De-Na-Zin is another corner of the wilderness. But it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter how far you go and what direction... you will be swamped with the multiformity and multicolorful appearance of the desert here. Just don't forget to bring your wild imagination. And once you turn it on, you can see the world of the fantasy and unimaginable creatures around you...

After just 10 minutes of walking we stopped to look around. Just to realize we were overwhelmed with everything we already met. The rocks, the clay, the hills, the watermarks, the shapes... And it was just the beginning! The most famous in this wilderness are mushroom shapes you can find here and there and we've met a few already. And those are plenty and no two of them are alike. You will see it yourself ;) We stopped to discuss where we would move next and we were staying in the mouth of the micro canyon, so we decided to explore it a bit deeper.

But before going we looked under our feet to find some colorful rocks scattered on the canyon bed... White, brown, red, black... like an exotic rag no one expects to find here...

 

Next we noticed the change of color... Deadly gray was changed to ocher-brown. We were walking on the dried creek bed and were surprised to find some green plants here and there. We still were under the impression the desert has no plants at all.

A few more steps and we found some small hills formed by layers of thin sandstones. Looked very much as shingles forgotten by construction workers a million years ago...

And the most exciting finding was to see some flowers on the top of one of them! No, this is not a deadly desert as we thought before, this is a place that lives, changes all the time, but definitely not dead!

But once we turned to the right we stopped frozen - deadly cold gray hill slopes made us doubt about staying on Earth at this moment. We felt like we were roaming the dead surface of Mars. This is what this place does to you - you are uncertain about everything and doubt what you feel and even what you see...

And once we turned 180 degrees we couldn't believe our eyes (again!) - bright red/orange/brown colors and the feet of a huge animal (elephant? dinosaur?) was just in the hand's distance. Where were we?

We continued into the canyon, made a couple of turns and found a castle looking island and... a dog running towards us. What a place ;) Dead rocks, very alive dog and the plants here and there... We lost any sense of reality at this point and thought nothing else could surprise us that day (oh, you cannot imagine how wrong we were and how many surprises we were about to find!).

Next surprise was to find a smaaal and dry plant on the dry creek bed.

 

And just a few feet away another plant, bigger and all green. And now we were wondering if the dry one was dead already or still had a chance to survive. But again, we learned, the wilderness and desert doesn't mean being dead and plantless. By the way, look at the plant roots - wide and multiple, they help it to stay when the water is running fast and moving even the rocks, but not small bush like this one ;) And it has a chance to survive the cold Winter, Spring flooding and Summer heat, burning everything. Slim chance though...

We found some ruins and were questioning if we found the scraps of the civilization's or if they were just rocks scattered by time and rough weather conditions... We are still not sure...

By the way, can you see some exposed black layers? They looked pretty much like charcoal burned there millions of years ago. We even touched the rocks to confirm those weren't burnt. Do not believe your eyes there!

Looking at the slope we found an eye. Scary eye looking at us, learning about our movements... Guard? Centinel? We moved closer and figured out that it was only a volcanic lava rock washed clean from the clay and making such a spooky impression. We were good to go further.

Finally we reached the end of the canyon and had a question about what to do next... We could return back and explore some other place... Or we could climb up and look around and make another decision... We knew what to expect if we came back so we decided in favor of the unknown and climbed up the slope which wasn't an easy climb ;)

A few minutes later we were looking at the valley from some height. We could see around for miles!

 

We looked at the canyon we just left and walked to find another easy slope to climb down. It took a while to find something we liked ;)

But we were able to find something different and learn how the canyon starts to form. The upper layers there are sandstone and not as easy to dissolve as the clay below. The water is working hard on it and once it creates a ravine, the stone bridges are still connecting the sides... But at some point the water wins and it looks like two hands are reaching out to each other. Really sad image, I should say.

 

We roamed a little longer on the top looking for a path down. Surprisingly the slopes there were steep and we could only jump (20 feet down) or slide with unpredictable results or walk longer to find a gentle slope we would be able to climb down. Finally we found one and after a few minutes we were back in the valley and ready for more adventures...

To look at the next area of Bisti wilderness, click here - Yes, I said one, right, to Mars! part 2

Pictures were taken on April 28, 2012.