Bisti Badlands

[OlDoinyo]

In the far south of San Juan County, New Mexico are some arroyos where layers of soft, claylike sediment were laid down interspersed with patchy, thin layers of harder sediment. Erosion has sculpted these sediments into weird, distinctive shapes, a landscape known as the Bisti Badlands. It is a remote area, and undeveloped; my attempts to photograph the area were hampered by the fact that I am used to park settings with well-mapped attractions and trails. This is no such curated experience: there is a public parking area on one end, but once one traverses the fence and gate to the wilderness area, one finds no trails, no signage, and not even any regular maps showing the locations of the better-known formations. Use of online resources such as Google Maps is hampered by an almost complete lack of cellular reception (despite a cellular tower only 2 km distant--go figure.) There is a back entrance, but it is difficult to get to and roads in the area are indistinct and poorly marked, with many washouts, false trails. and hazards for the unwary driver. In a recent, brief reconnaissance of the area, I did not find many of the more well-known formations such as the Alien Throne, King of Wings, or Egg Hatchery. But I did manage to take a few pictures with the Sony A900, the Kuribayashi 35, and the Baader U2 filter. Display intent is BGR.

 

 

Viewers may notice some similarities with my Goblin Valley post a couple of years ago, especially the largely monochromatic nature of the landscape in UV with a slight magenta tinge of the underlying clay layer. The thin layers of harder rock have fragmented and the clay beneath the fragments has been mostly washed away, leading to long, surreal overhanging features locally called "wings." The capping rock layer in Goblin Valley is thicker, leading to a slightly different appearance.

 

The features are on a more miniature scale than I expected, the largest hoodoos being no more than 5 meters tall and many standing less than a meter.

[Wayne Harridge]

Certainly an interesting landscape, do you have any visible images for comparison?

 

[colinbm]

Great UV shots.

[Andy Perrin]

These are fantastic! I always have to switch them back to RGB (despite artist's intent) because my eyes don't function at all with red and green so the images appear completely monochrome, even the sky.

[OlDoinyo]

 

3 hours ago, Wayne Harridge said:

Certainly an interesting landscape, do you have any visible images for comparison?

 

No exact comparison shots; but you can see a couple of frames here, here, and here for some general idea of how the area looked (assuming those links work.)

[Cadmium]

These are very wonderful and interesting!

[Wayne Harridge]

6 hours ago, OlDoinyo said:

 

No exact comparison shots; but you can see a couple of frames here, here, and here for some general idea of how the area looked (assuming those links work.)

Links work fine for me - a great location to explore in VIS, UV and would probably look good in IR with a really dark sky.

 

[Andrea B.]

Wonderful photos, Clark, of a very unusual site. Thank you for the write-up.

 

 

[JCDowdy]

Yes, I was thinking of your Goblin Valley “hoodoos”. 

 

Seeing the caps laying in the arroyo bed makes me wonder how often they fall.

[Nate]

Cool shots, I'd love to visit there sometime.

[dabateman]

I wonder if the wind has knocked them down or with the recent turn of events if people have been knocking them down. 

I see the craziest actions these days.