bisti de-na-zin oasis

This was a day of hiking the Bisti De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area. As soon as you pull off the main road it becomes a one lane, unpaved dirt path. Several miles into the desert unique rock formations started appearing everywhere.

Time and natural elements have etched a fantasy world of strange rock formations made of interbedded sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal, and silt. The weathering of the sandstone forms hoodoos - weathered rock in the form of pinnacles, spires, cap rocks, and other unusual forms. Fossils occur in this sedimentary landform. Translated from the Navajo language, Bisti (Bis-tie) means "a large area of shale hills." De-Na-Zin (Deh-nah-zin) takes its name from the Navajo words for "cranes."

At the end of the roadway, I arrived at the entrance to the exploration area. The caution on the gate and barbed wire fencing was clear, as were the additional road signs warning of impassability during floods. I pulled the chain off the gate lock and proceeded on foot.

The rock formations took on new silhouettes, casting long shadows onto the packed sand and dried flood plains. The dark peppering of the coal mixed in with the lighter sediment created otherworldly and additional lowlights as the dry air, unencumbered by trees, pushed through the landscape. I looked south of my location over the cracked riverbed and could see storm clouds forming on the horizon.

The last section I hiked through saw the broken rock formations morph to shaded and topped, wind carved Hoodoos. I peeked around several of them wondering if I’d encounter a Tuskin Raider or Jawa Sand Crawler. The growing thunderheads and lighting flares in the distance told me that it was time to head back.

As I was packing up to go, I noticed two people with a canopy and asked if they needed help securing it to the ground. While doing so, I started talking to them about adventures in the wilderness, and they invited me to have a drink with them in the pull-out bar installed in the back of the 4Runner. We set up 3 lawn chairs, swapping stories while the storm rolled in. That was ok, though. Weather patterns are temporary. The company of others and shelter make it an enjoyable experience.