Resources
☞ Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness BLM map
☞ Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness BLM map
☞ NM Area 1 Northwest BLM map
Choosing dirt roads even to travel short distance between local destination was of concern. Is our car’s clearance sufficient? Can we cross washes without getting stuck in deep sand? Running water was not an issue because of the drought. We carried car recovery kit on this trip, but did not have to use it. A shortcut between Chaco Canyon and ☞ Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness did not look too good (although we later concluded it was probably also passable) so we decided to add miles just to stay on more used dirt roads (7950-7980-57-7870). We crossed Escavada Wash three times, skidding quite a bit in the sand in one spot (nothing our car could not handle) and later over new bridge in a spot that could be otherwise problematic. Last couple of miles from Rd 7870 to the Valey of Dreams trailhead were on a sandy path rather than road. We checked out different options and followed what looked passable by eye. We parked our car at one of the “parking lots” near the trail, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but with good view of our hiking destination.
We started exploration of rock formations and Joanna’s favorite finds: petrified trees. Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness has a feel of remote sandy desert with little vegetation. Wind gusts kicking-up dirt/sand amplified the impression (there was a dust storm in the afternoon). We followed mapped trails most of the time, but also explored different corners of “rock gardens” in Valley of Dreams (late morning) and along Ah-shi-sle-pah Trail (late afternoon). Hoodoos are fantastic, really like from a fairy tale or a dream and there is a sense of discovery there – we met only one hiker. Each walk was about 3.5 “slow” miles. The trailheads are 6 miles apart, the latter just off Rd 57. We then drove on “main” dirt roads (57-7610-7500) to ☞ Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness and looked around for camp site – decided to stay near trailhead for our hiking destination next morning.
Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness (video clip)
Our first hike of the day was 6.5 mile semi-loop in De-na-zin Wilderness. We started towards Yellow Hoodoo in the general direction (counterclockwise) of mapped loop, but quickly started wandering around and exploring the site on our own. At some point the trail disappeared in narrow passages with what looked like a small rock scramble. At this point we decided to walk back a bit and down to the main wash, and continue exploration from there (we did not close the entire loop, but were very close). De-na-zin feels also quite remote with few visitors. We then drove around to Bisti (Rds 7500-371-7297). After lunch, we just started walking across flat area along Bisti Wash towards Bisti Arch, Rock Garden and Valley of Bones, and then continued towards Cracked Eggs and Petrified Wood. We zig-zagged 5-mile loop – we liked the second part better. Wind gusts were getting quite strong as we were walking back to the trailhead against the wind in a dust “storm” wearing masks. Bisti is much more developed with many more visitors, but it is also the largest with a sense of vast open space. There are many more rock formations and petrified forests there that we did not get to because we were tired of blowing dust. We liked Ah-shi-sle-pah the most, then De-na-zin, partially because of novelty of seeing fantastic rock shapes, mostly because of remoteness and emptiness, but also because of the weather – in Bisti colors were washed out and views obscured by the dust storm.
We stayed for the night in motel in Farmington. Shower, laundry and resupply time.
Lovely photos! amazing views
I knew and used the phrase “Petrified forest” but I didn’t realize they looked so amazing. I like your writing Joanna.