Meander through the endless hoodoos, desert spires, and incredible rock formations in the Badlands of New Mexico. This alien world was once a coastal swamp of an inland sea where dinosaurs roamed!
Suppose you’re a hiker, photographer, or nature lover. The Badlands of New Mexico is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that should definitely be on your bucket list.
Rising from the flat, dusty New Mexico desert, it’s hard to miss the imposing and mysterious Shiprock Pinnacle. This unique rock formation can be seen for miles and is known to the Navajo as “Tsé Bit’ A’í,” or rock with wings. The peak tip rests 7,178 feet above sea level. It is at the center of three volcanic pressure ridges that pushed the rock skyward millenniums ago. According to legend, the remains of the giant bird carried the Navajo from the north to New Mexico. As this rock formation is sacred to the Navajos – hiking and/or climbing on the sacred peak or surrounding rocks are forbidden.
The Bisti Badlands is one of the most unique places you will ever visit and one of the coolest places nobody has ever heard of. This unworldly place was once a coastal swamp of an inland sea. The Bisti Badlands offer some of the most unusual scenery in the American Southwest. National Geographic Travel listed it as a “must-visit” adventure destination in 2019.
Photographers, hikers, and explorers from around the world visit the Bisti Badlands to see the hoodoos, desert spires, natural arches, and fossils unique to this area. An early relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Bisti Beast was discovered in 1997. This 30-foot tyrannosaur roamed the Earth around 74 million years ago and has only been found in New Mexico. The Bisti Beast is not the only specimen discovered within the Bisti. Researchers have found numerous other fossils, including the duck-billed dinosaur Parasaurolophus, a Pentaceratops, a giant sauropod named Alamosaurus, and innumerable turtles, fish, crocodiles, and other species.
The Bisti Badlands is the closest thing to Mars you’ll ever see. Although we’ll spend time exploring and photographing the endless hoodoos, desert spires, arches, and unique rock formations, we’ll focus our attention on three different areas of Bisti: the northern Bisti area where the Three Wings, Beige/Conversing/Vanilla Hoodoos, and Mantra Ray are located; the southern Bisti area where the Egg Hatchery, Hoodo City, and Bisti Arch are located, and the Valley of Dreams area where the Alien Throne and King of Wings are located.
With dark skies, the Galactic Center of the Milky Way will be visible between 8:30 PM and 11:30 PM that week. The Galactic Center will be mostly vertical, making for spectacular skies. Be prepared for several spectacular evenings of shooting the Milky Way!
Itinerary & General Information
- Arrival – Arrival at the hotel in Farmington, NM / 5 PM Meet-and-Greet and group dinner.
- Day 1 – We’ll spend our first day at Shiprock Pinnacle. We’ll also spend time working on our images, discussing camera techniques, and preparing for our days in Bisti. We may shoot the stars into the evening depending on the weather and night sky.
- Day 2 – We’ll focus our activities in the northern Bisti area where the Three Wings, Beige/Conversing/Vanilla Hoodoos, and Mantra Ray are located. Although the terrain is relatively flat in this area of Bisti, plan to hike several miles throughout the day as we move from location to location. We may shoot the stars into the evening depending on the weather and night sky.
- Day 3 – We’ll use the morning of the third day to work on our images in the classroom before heading out to the southern Bisti area, where the Egg Hatchery, Hoodo City, and Bisti Arch are located.
- Day 4 – The fourth day of the workshop will be one of the most rewarding days as we hike the Valley of Dreams area, where the Alien Throne and King of Wings are located. We’ll spend the day scouting locations for an evening of Astrophotography.
- Day 5 – We’ll spend our final morning critiquing our images in the classroom before concluding our adventure.