New Mexico Bad Lands
Hello Family and Friends
Today is a down day for us so I thought it was a good time to catch up on some web posting along with other down time stuff. Let’s see, where were we…
When last I posted, it was all about our Hot Air Balloon ride. That was a wonderful way to start a day. But once we were back on the ground, it was time to move on to more terrestrial settings, so we drove off to what I’m calling, the New Mexico Badlands. I know it has a more official name and I got a picture of the sign with that name but Badlands really does explain it pretty well and it is much easier to spell and pronounce so I’ll stick to that.
The New Mexico Badlands (here after referred to as Badlands) located on Native American land. The area looks like it is on another planet. It is not as extensive as the Badlands in South Dakota, but it is more striking. To describe it from a geology point of view, the Badlands are evidence of the power of erosion. There are places where the bottom layer of rock eroded much faster than the top layer, so you end up with this skinny stem of a rock with a much larger rock on top of it. There is also what look like, and I know you are going to think I must be smoking some wacky weed, a walrus (minus the tusks). They are large, rounded formations that flow into each other leaving a steep gully in between. The sides of these formations were soft sand with an exceptionally light crust on top so when you stepped on it going down the side it smushed under your foot making it very easy to slip and slide your way down. (don’t ask how I know)
One surprise was finding petrified tree stumps and a lot of much smaller pieces. There is no doubt that they were petrified tree remains, but they did look vastly different then what we found in the Petrified Forest. I guess what really made them seem a bit out of place was how random they were. Maybe, as more of the surface erodes more will be exposed.
It was a good walk with fantastic views. I hope our photos do it justice.
TTFN
So desolate…
Yes it was. It truly put meaning to the phrase out in the middle of nowhere.