To look at the sunset in Bisti wilderness, click here - The sun was rolling down... Part 5
I know I promised you to come back here and explore some more of the
Bisti wilderness. And... let's do it! Even more, let's go back in
time... Not too far, just a few months back... From April to
October... Why? From the dry season to the rainy days. In fact it was raining
hard just the day before we visited Bisti for the first time and it
made a huge difference with our Spring visit. We got there early in the
morning and started walking towards the north side of the valley.
Immediately we realized that wet clay is the hardest thing on Earth to
walk on... It sticks... sticks... sticks... more and more and soon every
boot weighs at least 10 pounds (I am not kidding or exaggerating)...
Just look at our tracks... You know what saved us? Grocery bags! ;) We
wrapped the boots before entering the clay field and... surprisingly it
helped - less clay stuck ;) But.. nothing is perfect on this Earth and
we still had heavy feet but kept going... we had no option but to keep walking ;)
We were getting closer to the bright orange hills we marked as our
destination... And the closer we get the more they attract us, like a
huge magnet attracts small iron particles...
But before we reached the hills on the far end of the valley, we
found a lake (or was that a creek?) and a track going around it so we
followed it to get around the water (it's hard to call it a "road")... Do you remember the last picture
in the previous story? Believe it, or not, it was the dried bottom of
this very lake! The rains stopped and the water evaporated and exposed
the lake bed... Interesting metamorphosis, huh?
Just look at this 360 degrees view, isn't it amazing? Also look at
the surface... This area was slightly elevated compared to where we
started and the clay was drying out already. So, at this point we had
less weight on our boots and left almost no track... But just a few
steps forward and everything changed and we were in square one again,
struggling through wet and soft clay...
Twenty more minutes and we were walking at the foothills and looking at the lake (or creek?) from the other side...
And we continued exploring and finding new petrified animals and
other fantastic creatures. And... the colors... These orange rocks...
Later we met some guards. Or at least we thought those were guards.
Why? Have no idea, they just looked like ones ;) Don't you agree?
By this point we were already tired. And decided we'd better return before our legs stopped. So we turned and retraced our steps, trying to walk across the driest areas. It wouldn't help much but we found a road on the other side of the creek/lake. Hm... road is a big of the word, but this track was elevated and we can walk there. It made our way longer (almost twice compared to crossing the clay field) but much-much easier so we didn't think twice ;)
Soon enough we were back in the parking lot (hm... actually just a
flat and relatively dry area off the road with the sign to mark it) and
that was it. But after this short and adventurous hike we were dreaming
of coming back so we did it next April (but you already know about that,
don't you?). Probably the northern part of the wilderness is not as
interesting as others, but... still worth exploring and wandering
around. And the best part is - we still left almost 90% unexplored and
need to come back again (and, maybe, more than once) to satisfy our itch
to find more exotic creatures and places...
Pictures were taken on October 04, 2011.
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