Bisti Badlands

The Bisti Badlands is one of the most unique places you will ever visit and definitely one of the coolest places nobody has ever heard of. This unworldly place was once a coastal swamp of an inland sea – and it provides views of some of the most amazing sandstone rock formations you will ever see. The Bisti Badlands offer some of the most unusual scenery in the American Southwest, and National Geographic Travel listed it as one of their “must visit” adventure destinations 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 to date has only been found in New Mexico. The Bisti Beast is not the only specimen discovered within the Bisti. Researchers have discovered numerous other fossils including the duck-billed dinosaur Parasaurolophus, a Pentaceratops, a large sauropod named Alamosaurus, as well as numerous turtles, fish, crocodiles, and other species.

This formation is known as “The Wings” and it is located at an elevation of 6,500 feet fairly deep into the Badlands.

Location: Bisti Badlands; Farmington, New Mexico.