Our destination for the day was Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness area. This was a fall-back plan since Chaco Canyon was still closed because of the government shutdown. The descriptions and photos we found online looked promising and it didn’t look like such a long walk to get to the hoodoo formations. It isn’t far from Farmington as the crow flies, but to get there you have to drive all the way around from Bisti, about an hour away. You take the main highway out of Farmington and then you have to take County 57 off of the main road. Initially the road is black top but eventually turns into dirt, alternately pretty smooth and very rutted. It didn’t help that a few days prior, there had been some rain and apparently the big oil and gas trucks slog through rain or shine leaving huge ruts in places. But John’s truck has 4 wheel drive and he pays attention so we had no problems.
When we finally arrived, we saw two big tents set up close to the parking lot. There were two families camping there. Must have been a little challenging with no bathroom, electricity or running water. Mom looked like she could use a drink.
The walk to the badlands area wasn’t too bad although it was a very bright and warm day. You walk through a huge open area of nothing but sage. The badlands are really cool but navigating them is tricky. There are no signs and no marked trails.
We followed the rim while observing the “brown mushroom” rock formations. Pretty cool but our AllTrails map had us following a trail at the bottom of the ravine. It was about a 20’ drop with no easily discernible way down.
We walked a little ways until we found a reasonable path to the bottom. Once there it was easy to just follow the course of the ravine. The badlands there are essentially a graduate course in erosion. The soil is compacted gravel that can easily erode in the presence of wind and water. Fortunately, there is little water. The soil underneath a thin rock crust erodes away leaving the distinctive flat top “caps” that make the hoodoos so interesting.
We walked to the end of the wash and then veered to the left in search of the “Turtle”. The turtle shape is a distinctive but common smooth hump. They are everywhere so it took a minute to find the official turtle. Having seen that, we started up another wash to complete the trail loop. There were more cool rock formations and eventually we walked out of the wash and up a short hill of gravel to the rim again. We ended up walking around the rim and back to the trail that led to the parking lot. Hoodoos and the badlands are really interesting, but after about 90 minutes of walking in them, we were done. We walked back to the car and pointed the truck towards home. Stopped for gas and coffee and made the long drive back to ABQ.