FIND THE BEST PLACES TO HIKE WITH YOUR DOG IN YOUR INBOX ON THE 10TH OF EVERY MONTH…places where you won’t be able to wipe the wag off your dog’s tail.

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The Best Hike With Your Dog Destination in 2020…Bisti Badlands

Where:  Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, northwest New Mexico

Directions: From Farmington, the nearest city, travel 36 miles south on NM-371. Turn left on Road 7297 at the Bureau Land Management sign for the Bisti Wilderness. Go about two miles on a maintained gravel road to a large parking area - two-wheel drive passenger vehicles can handle this road. 

Good to Know:

* Elevation is over 6,000 feet so it will be cold in the winter

* These are desertlands with no water and no shade and hot in summer

* The surface of the Bisti Badlands is mostly clay and a mess to hike on after a rare rainfall

* When doing your research on Bisti you will find better information on photography websites than hiking websites

* you can camp for free at the parking lot or in the wilderness; no facilities

Why So Good:

Nothing beats opening the car door after a long ride and letting your dog jump out to explore. Bisti is a place to give leashes a rest. There are no trails here - you just hike east from the parking lot across a wide, flat expanse called the Alamo Wash. Your destination is an alien world of rock formations that are souvenirs initiated when this region was submerged beneath an inland sea 73 million years ago.

While there are no trails you may want to find a map of the named formations although your visit will be not be the worse for never locating a few particular fantasy rocks among thousands. A signpost at the parking lot provides photographs of the main destinations with a general locator map. It will take about a mile of easy walking through this lunar landscape - you’ll hear that descriptor of Bisti a lot - to reach the greatest concentrations of scenic rocks. 

The stars of the Bisti Badlands are the mudstone creations that have evolved to resemble cracked eggs - five and six feet long. These are easy to spot in a large “nest” on the south side of the Alamo Wash (your right) as your dog leads you into the wilderness area. The eggs are just the beginning of Bisti’s wonders. There are balanced rocks and hoodoos and small slot canyons. There are large petrified junipers, including complete stumps. There are dinosaur fossils out here; one 30-foot tyrannosaur nicknamed the Bisti Beast was unearthed in the silt and shale.

For more challenging hiking fare you can push into the surrounding hills with your dog. Keep track of the orientation of the wash so you don’t get lost. There are 45,000 acres at Bisti so hours - and days - of canine hiking are possible. A second wash to the north, Hunter Wash, is stuffed with more geologic delights. It can be reached with a long hike or from its own access off NM 371. If you are of a photographic bent you will want to stake out the best formations in the badlands at sunrise and sunset which is made easier with camping right at the parking lot.