Petrified Tree, Bisti Badlands

The Bisti, part of the De-Na-Zin Wilderness administered by the Bureau of Land Management, is a magical, other-worldly, erosional landscape. In Navajo, "Bisti" means "large area of shale hills." It is characterized by thin, often lenticular beds of Paleocene Ojo Alamo sandstone overlying shales, mudstones, siltstones, minor sandstones, and coal of the Cretaceous Kirtland Formation. In this photograph, the shales and mudstone erode around a petrified tree. This is located roughly 2 miles from the parking lots, south of the wash.

Two small parking lots are located on Navajo Road 7293, approximately 2.5 miles east of NM Highway 371, 36 miles south of Farmington and 45 miles north of Crownpoint.