Bisti Badlands, De-Na-Zin Wilderness, New Mexico

by muha04

The De-Na-Zin Wilderness (from Diné Dééł Náázíní, or Standing Crane), in the Dinétah (San Juan Co, NM), is a rolling landscape of badlands that offers some of the most unusual scenery in New Mexico. Time and natural elements have etched a fantasy world of strange rock formations made of sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal and silt.

Photo: Jessica Fridrich/National Park Service (2023)

(Robert Scott Horton)

* * * *

Because what I want most is permanence, The long unwinding and continuous flow Of subterranean rivers rivers out of sense, That nourish arid landscapes with their blue- Poetry, prayer, or call it what you choose That frees the complicated act of will And makes the whole world both intense and still- I set my mind to artful work and craft, I set my heart on friendship, hard and fast Against the wild inflaming wink of chance And all sensations opened in a glance. Oh blue Atlantis where the sailors dream Their girls under the waves and in the foam- I move another course. I’ll not look down.

Because what I want most is permanence, What I do best is bury fire now, To bank the blaze within, and out of sense, Where hidden fires and rivers burn and flow, Create a world that is still and intense, I come to you with only the straight gaze. These are not hours of fire but years of praise, The glass full to the brim, completely full, But held in balance so no drop can spill.

-May Sarton

I’m Letting the Bisti Memories Start Here by Mark Stevens

The Bisti Badlands, New Mexico...

These surreal rock formations are some of New Mexico's greatest treasures. The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a 45,000-acre (18,000 ha) wilderness area located in San Juan County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Sediments that created them were deposited 75 million years ago, as the dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. Then, millions of years of erosion formed these residual formations. Once covered in swamps and deltas of the Western Interior Seaway, the area was filled with sediments and organic materials in prehistoric times. This particular image shows a formation called the "cracked eggs", which are the result of differential erosion between hard and soft sediments.

Credit: John Fowler via Flickr https://buff.ly/3PdivAn

Rock formations called “hoodoos” fill the Bisti De-Na-Zin Wilderness in northern New Mexico. The desert area is rich with fossils from dinosaurs and animals that lived here in ancient times.

PHOTOGRAPH BY EFRAIN PADRO, ALAMY STOCK

moonrise 🌝

The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness encompasses 41,170 acres of rock formations that would seem more natural on Mars. It is one of several protected badlands in the Four Corners area. Ah-She-Sle-Pah Wilderness is a few miles south. Angel Peak badlands is about 20 miles northeast.

The geological diversity of the badlands in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is astounding.

New Mexico

By Jason Coward

📆 Mar 30, 2024

📷 1/1000 s at f/14, ISO 640, 400mm

Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness, San Juan County, New Mexico, United States: Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness is located in San Juan County, New Mexico, between Chaco Canyon and the De-Na-Zin Wilderness. Its name is a phonetic transliteration of Navajo "áshįįh łibá" meaning "salt, it is grey". Wikipedia

Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, New Mexico

Bisticeratops froeseorum Dalman et al., 2022 (new genus and species)

(Type skull of Bisticeratops froeseorum, from Dalman et al., 2022)

Meaning of name: Bisticeratops = Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness Area horned face [in Greek]; froeseorum = for Edgar Froese [the late founder of the band Tangerine Dream] and Jerome Froese [former member of Tangerine Dream and founder of the band Loom]

Age: Late Cretaceous (Campanian), about 74 million years ago

Where found: Kirtland Formation, New Mexico, U.S.A.

How much is known: Nearly complete skull of one individual.

Notes: Bisticeratops was a chasmosaurine ceratopsian, making it a fairly close relative of Triceratops. The holotype skull of Bisticeratops was originally considered a specimen of Pentaceratops, another chasmosaurine from the Campanian of New Mexico. However, a new study identifies several distinguishing features that suggest it is a separate species. In addition, Bisticeratops is approximately 2 million years younger than Pentaceratops proper. Along with several other recently named ceratopsians, such as Sierraceratops, Navajoceratops, and Terminocavus, Bisticeratops shows that chasmosaurine diversity was very high in the Campanian of southwestern North America.

The Bisticeratops type specimen is also noteworthy in that it preserves multiple bite marks that were likely made by tyrannosaurids. One of these bite marks shows signs of healing, indicating that this individual had survived at least one attack from a predator.

Reference: Dalman, S.G., S.E. Jasinski, and S.G. Lucas. 2022. A new chasmosaurine ceratopsid from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Farmington Member of the Kirtland Formation, New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 90: 127–153.

Bisti/ De-Na-Zin Wilderness, New Mexico, USA

Heading off to Explore the Bisti Badlands by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: A setting looking to the northeast while taking in views to the badlands area where I’d be hiking and exploring in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area.

Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, New Mexico, US [OC] [4023 x 3018]

Bisti / De-Na-Zin wilderness area, New Mexico

Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, New Mexico