Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness

Photo: Sherman Hogue, BLM, Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness (Some rights reserved)

Spotlight on the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness in northwestern New Mexico. // Foco en el desierto Bisti/De-Na-Zin en el noroeste de Nuevo México.

Google Maps
goo.gl/maps/HsMaMB9H9K65JhbG7

BLM: The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a rolling landscape of badlands which offers some of the most unusual scenery found in the Four Corners Region. 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.”

Kialo Winters of Navajo Tours USA: Bisti (Bis-tie) is actually spelled and pronounced in Dine (Navajo) as Bis-di. ‘Di’ means ‘at’ in reference to ‘a location.’ Bis = mudstone, shale; “ti” is actually spelled “di” = at (proposition word). So, the translation is “at the mudstone, shale place.”

De-Na-Zin (Deh-nah-zin) takes its name from the Navajo words for “cranes.”

Key Links
blm.gov/visit/bisti-de-na-zin-wilderness
Flickr

Questions

What would locals like others know about the area?
What is the status of travel and tourism in the area?

Special Rules

Since this is a Wilderness Area, it is closed to motorized vehicles and mechanical forms of transportation (mountain bikes included).
Also prohibited are campfires, collecting fossils or petrified wood, climbing on delicate geologic features, traveling in groups of more than eight people, and trespassing on adjacent tribal lands.
Permits are required for uses such as grazing, scientific research, and commercial guiding.

Headlines
Fossils reveal dinosaurs were thriving in North America just before being wiped out by asteroid strike, study shows

Camping
Bisti Campground in Nageezi
Bisti Badlands Camping – Farmington

Elsewhere on the Web
Flickr Slideshow – BLM
Bisti Badlands / De-na-zin Wilderness – Farmington