Surprise!
Over the past two trips to Farmington, we've probably made 10 - 12 trips out to Bisti. It's 41 miles each way from our campground. Most of the time there are no other cars in the parking area when we arrive. Once in-a-while, there may be one or two. Today, the parking lot was packed. An Arizona Highways photo workshop had taken over nearly the entire parking lot. The people in the workshop were camping in the parking lot, so there were tiny one and two-person tents scattered around and two large canopies that provided "common areas" for the group to sit around. Remember, it rained yesterday so there were mud puddles that everyone had to avoid. And last but not least, there are no bathroom facilities of any kind for miles around the parking lot. It was pretty crazy.
Still Not There
Our goal for the day was to find the Balanced Rock in the southeastern section of the main Bisti Wash. I've looked for it twice, but couldn't find it. Now, we can make it three times. Carol and I hiked directly to the area where the formation should be found, but still didn't find it. It's unclear if the person who attached the image in Google Earth got its placement wrong or if we somehow missed it. Regardless, I'm done looking for it.
After wondering around for an hour or so, I showed Carol the places I shot last Sunday and the dog head formation from last year. We added a huge red steer to our animal formations, but otherwise we didn't find anything new. We hiked 5 3/4 miles, but didn't really get any great images. When I looked at the track from our GPS for the hike, it looks like we were two drunks wondering around in the wilderness.
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| Shades of Gray | The Steer |
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| Bisti Arch & Window | Dog Head | Bisti Window |
As we hiked down the main wash back toward the parking area, we saw a string of lights coming south from The Wings section. The photo group must have shot sunset either at The Pedestal or The Wings. Whenever we looked back, we saw this caterpillar of lights behind us. As we reached the parking area, about 25 people from the Arizona Highways group caught up to us. They asked me if dinner was ready. I had to break the news that the steaks were done, but we were still waiting for the potatoes.
We signed out on the trailhead at 8:00 just as we had the previous two hikes. We managed to back out
and exit the parking lot without hitting any people, tents, or cars--although it was a minor challenge.
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