North Bisti – May 2019 – Day 3 Scouting

My mid-day scouting activity proved really useful for learning my way around in the northern part of the Bisti Wilderness as well as for determining good places for either sunrise and/or sunset landscape photography.  I also began to make written notes, rather than relying upon my memory, since I’m seeing so much variation here that my brain cannot reliably recall some details, especially a few days after the fact.

Today my primary destination was the plateau area with a couple of significantly large hoodoos that I had first seen during my March 2019 visit with my oldest son.  I wanted to get a better fix on the best route to these features and a better idea of how much time to allow for hiking there from the north parking area.

I would then explore more in that area.

I followed a general route that I had already found, but explored a slight deviation as I was climbing up out of a valley/wash near a previously found exit point.

Instead of going straight up a somewhat steep, red rock strewn exit, I turned to the right, up another short incline to see where that took me.  I entered into a smallish, enclosed area, which I initially thought might be a dead end route.

Looking around the little nook, I spotted this small hoodoo on the wall near where I had entered:

It looked like a hoodoo sentinel standing guard over the little nook.

On the opposite side from where I came in, I could see that it would be possible to climb out there, so I went up the hill and entered into a large, flat area, which I recognized as being just east of an area my son and I had exited into from another direction during our March visit.  We had come into that area via a much more difficult route.

Now I was actually on the plateau of my destination, so I began to walk to the south, which I recalled was where the large hoodoos and other features were located.

In a blog post from the March visit, I included scouting photographs of the large pedestal like hoodoos in the above image.  We did not get back here on that visit.  Looking around, I realized that this area would be good for either sunrise or sunset shoots.

I continued exploring this area to the west and south.  Finding areas that were familiar from the March 2019 and March 2011 visits:

There are a number of deep canyons or washes crisscrossing this badlands area with many hoodoos lining the walls of the washes.

I explored along the top edge of the deep washes finding many interesting features.

Can you see the leading lines in these photos:?

I recall photographing in this area in 2011 during my first visit to Bisti and I still have a few photos of the features in this image:

I also found features that make good abstract photographs, like this one:

Wandering through a hodgepodge of rocks along the edge of a deep wash I found the fish like hoodoo at the right end of the line of hoodoos:

And this scary looking rock:

Just behind the fish hoodoo:

On the way out of this area:

I could see these large wing like hoodoos on the far side of a deep wash:

I did not know how to access those far away wing hoodoos at this time; but later I found a way down into the wash and a way to hike up near those wings.

I think that is more than enough for this blog,

Ken