Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness

This is a little-known but truly amazing area near Farmington, NM, which is about 4 hours from us. We went out there the weekend before we closed on the new house in Santa Fe.

We took a short hike in the evening on the day we arrived.

I was taking last minute calls from my real estate agent. Can you believe I had cell tower out here? Everything had to be done before the weekend, because we were closing on Monday morning. Real estate agents work all weekend, but title companies don’t.

The red rocks on the gray sand in the evening light.

Well, it beats carving in tree bark.

We stayed the night in the camper van, and then we went on a long hike the next day. Here I am the next morning, going up, up and up, with my little doggie duckings behind me.

Oh no, now I’ve got to get back down again! John says, “Here we can get down here.” Uhh…are you freaking kidding me? You want me to go down there?

I can’t get down this! I was terrified. John had to come back up and lead me down.

We made it! I’m alive! I’m just going to sit here and drink my green tea with my puppy until my pulse returns to something like normal.

Not your ordinary lawn sculptures.

Wow, this is fantastic!

Surreal.

That log on the rock behind the dogs is not wood. It’s completely petrified. It’s just stone.

Here’s some more petrified wood. It’s amazing, it’s not wood, it’s stone.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s all rock.

Here’s the petrified log in the foreground, and in the background is the ridge John climbed. Yes, seriously, he climbed to the top of that. 

There he is, do you see him there on the top waving his arms? He’s a crazy bastard.

Here’s a picture of me and the dogs that he took from the top.

More amazing scenery.

Aww, she’s so cute!

John’s sorta cute too. 

How does that rock even stay up like that?

Here’s another rock. 

Hey, you said it, not me. I’m just taking pictures of rocks.