US Road-trip - Bisti Badlands

Although we left Mesa Verde quite late, we still thought we could make it to Bisti in time for a quick sunset hike, so headed past Ship Rock to Farmington and then south towards the badlands. To the south and east of the road was an enormous storm, with that visible rain falling to the ground that I love to see; for a while the sky was almost black. The sun would suddenly streak through the clouds to the west, resulting in stunning crepuscular rays; I was very glad my husband was driving, as I snapped away out of the window!

We got to the main Bisti turn-off, not having seen the road to the northern car-park (which would have been a shorter route to any of the interesting formations there). We drove on to the southern car-park, relieved that the storm was now safely to the north and east of us (hiking in badlands in a big storm not being a sensible idea).

It also wan't very sensible heading into the badlands as the sun was about to set, armed only with torches, storm or no storm. There was a signing-in sheet in a covered box, so if anything happened at least someone would know where and when we'd started out. We set out, regardless of the danger, at 6.30pm, hoping that I'd be able to navigate my way to a formation called the "Eggs", about half an hour in.

We had headed due east (so we thought) from the car-park into the badlands, past a few cows and bulls that were fortunately not interested in us. Unfortunately, in spite of poring over blogs and maps of the place to familiarise myself with its lay-out, I couldn't see two large black hills on the horizon (that supposedly looked like boobs!) that I was hoping to navigate by. We must have veered slightly to the south, as we ended up clambering over soft black nobbly hillocks, in search of the bigger black ones. We were quickly lost. Realising that we weren't going to find the eggs and the light was fading fast, we meandered our way through the maze of black hills looking for a way down to a wider wash. Finally we found it and from there we followed the glowing horizon where the sun had set, leading us back to the car.

 

It was a relief to get back safely, and we drove back into Farmington to our motel, where we had an average Mexican meal with weak margaritas. At least we'd got to witness some pretty skies, which we would have missed if we'd gone straight to the hotel when we reached Farmington on our way in. Before bed I spent a good hour researching the route again and taking photos of each stage of the trail, marking the sights to see (the "eggs" and the "wings"), as we planned to head out early the next morning to try again (thanks to the roadslesstraveled blog and thewave.info which both contained invaluable information for trying to find these places).

The next morning's trip to Bisti was a little more successful. We set off before it got light and arrived at the southern car-park just before sunrise and quickly headed off. It was pretty chilly, but we had fleece and thermals, hat and gloves, and I had a light down coat, so we were well-prepared. My husband carried a lot of water, and I carried a lot of camera gear, as usual!

The directions made more sense in daylight, and we headed inland along the wash, being careful not to steer to the hillocks in the south. Before the black boobs, about 10-15 minutes in, there was a pair of red boob-like hills, which we had to keep to the left of. Once we'd passed these, the black ones came into view, and from then on it was easy to find the eggs (keep to the left of the black boobs and once past them head to the white hills - the eggs are in front of them). 

The sun was rising from behind the hoodoos and hillocks as we walked and soon we were warm. As we arrived at the eggs, the sun was still behind the hills, but soon broke free, illuminating the strange eroded rocks. My husband went off to explore as I set about photographing the bizarre formations. 

 

As well as these incredible "eggs" the area was scattered with pieces of petrified wood, now as hard as rock, although easily shattered, judging by the pieces everywhere.

 

I was absolutely smitten with the place! I'd had high expectations from others' photos and blogs, and they had been met! We were the only people there, the sun was casting golden light and everywhere we looked were more weird and wonderful desert shapes. There was a lot to see, so we left the southern area containing the eggs and headed back along the wash for a little while before turning off between some red hills on the north side of the wash, which led up to the "wings" area of the badlands. We meandered through a narrow wash, with pointy hills on each side. Eventually the wings area came into view. The wings are hoodoos with flat rock remaining on the top, the result of millennia of erosion leaving the hardest bits appearing to balance precariously. Some of them have toppled, with their tops lying in pieces at the base of the hoodoo. We wandered around for ages, in search of the "King of Hoodoos" - one that sticks out hugely, that I'd seen pictures of on Flickr. We didn't find it, but saw some amazing ones anyway. We met one other couple while we were there.

The walk back to the car was long and hot (I was now carrying all of the warm layers, not wearing them), past more strange desert, with the red boobs on the far side of the wash. The ground was crunchy dried sand that formed in amazing patterns. We had to drive to Monument Valley and wanted to be there by 4pm (check-in time) to get a cabin with a unobstructed view of the Mittens, so we had to drag ourselves away; otherwise I could've spent days exploring! It was definitely one of the most incredible, unique places I've ever visited.

Next stop: Monument Valley

US Road-trip - Mesa Verde

We set off from Telluride rather late, after a disappointing breakfast burrito in one of the trendy coffee shops along Colorado Avenue. The sun was shining on the wet road, but clouds lingered across the sky. The weather forecast was for worsening weather, so we decided not to give the 550 road through Ouray and Silverton a go, as it goes across a pass at 11,018 ft (3,358 m). Instead we continued south on the 145, which by all accounts is a safer road, although obviously not as spectacular. The weather was similar to the previous day - patches of blue sky and sun, but mainly dreary clouds clinging to the tops of the snowy peaks. It was the kind of irritating conditions where the we'd turn a bend to see a striking peak glowing in the sunshine, pull over, get the camera out, only for the sun to disappear behind a cloud, leaving the peak looking grey and dull.

Occasionally, though, the sun would stay out for more than five seconds and it was momentarily glorious.

As we headed further south the peaks and hills began to recede. We drove along a picturesque river valley towards Dolores. To the south-west of us was a huge storm system, but we turned east at Cortez to head up to Mesa Verde National Park. We planned to visit both Mesa Verde and get to the Bisti wilderness in New Mexico in time for sunset, but we hadn't left Telluride early enough and the cliff-side houses in Mesa Verde were deep inside the park; it was going to be rushed. As we approached Mesa Verde there were some large mesas to the south of the road, but I wasn't sure if they were part of the park, as there were no signs mentioning the park on the road from Cortez. The first sign was a mile away from the turn-off, finally confirming that the park entrance was where I thought it was.

Once inside the park the road took us up a series of winding switchbacks, gaining altitude quickly. As we didn't have long we only stopped briefly at a few of the overlooks before driving south to the cliff-dwelling area. At the Park Point overlook we saw the massive storm system that we'd seen earlier, now heading north-east into the mountains; the anvil was one of the most striking I've seen. Fortunately up on the mesa top the sun was now shining. The eerie skeletons of trees damaged by fires lined the paths up to the viewpoint.

We continued south, deeper into the park, towards the cliff dwellings. We took the loop to the visitor centre so I could buy a baseball cap (much needed for the upcoming desert days). We then took the Mesa Top loop, stopping at a few of the viewpoints. Some we found disappointing (the pit houses, for example), but others were very impressive - including the Square Tower house, perched perilously at the side of the cliff, overlooking a huge canyon below (shame about the cars parked along the top!).

We drove onwards to the Sun Point viewpoint where you can see up to 10 remains of houses in the opposite cliffside; some - like the Cliff Palace - are better preserved than others. I tried to get a panoramic shot of the view. Most of the dwellings were - not surprisingly - set back under the overhangs in the cliff.

In order to actually go into one of the ruined dwellings we discovered that you had to buy tickets back at the visitor centre, so we decided to give it a miss - time was rushing by and we still had a way to go to get down to Farmington and Bisti. As we left the Sun Point viewpoint I noticed a snake lying in the road, and had to swerve to avoid it. We got out to have a look, not wanting to get too close in case it lunged at us. It slithered slowly off to the side as we got back into the car, as a large coach couldn't get by. It turns out it was a non-venomous bull snake.

We drove out of the park, the skies above us now overcast, and headed back towards Cortez before saying goodbye to the lushness of Colorado and hello to the desert of New Mexico - a new state for me! The scenery became drier and flatter, with more mesas to the east, the mountains of southern New Mexico and eastern Arizona in the far distance and the striking Ship Rock right in front of us.

Next stop: Bisti Wilderness

US Road-trip - Drive to Telluride

After my early morning trip to the Black Canyon we headed off south and then west towards Telluride. I'd read about a few good autumn leaf-spotting spots along the way - the Dallas Divide and Last Dollar Road the main ones on our route. The beautiful weather I'd had on my return from the canyon had been replaced by a combination of washed-out and dark fast-moving clouds as we approached the mountains. We hadn't had much luck with the weather since we left Rocky Mountain National Park days earlier. The clouds hung over the peaks and the sun only occasionally made an appearance with a tantalising glimpse of blue sky behind.

We stopped at what I assume was the Dallas Divide, where photographers stood with their tripods dotted along a fence to try and get a good shot of the autumnal trees in the foreground and the now-snowy peaks in the distance. The sun illuminated patches of aspens and peaks to the east sporadically. I wandered up the road a little and found a picturesque area of turning leaves.

We continued onwards and eventually found a left-hand turn into the Last Dollar Road; everyone on the main road seemed to be going this way too.  It is a seasonal road that is closed between January and May, and winds its way across the mountains before eventually coming down in Telluride (I didn't know this at the time). We stopped when I spotted some pretty aspens - there were patches of red and peach leaves, not just the usual yellow. Still the sun was mainly hidden.

The road continued for a long way, winding around hillsides, copses of turning aspens just visible on private land from time to time, and the odd barn. Grand gateways to ranches appeared every once in a while.

 

We drove on until we reached a junction, at which we took the right hand fork; we had time on our hands, so decided to explore. We could see the road winding across the ranch-land in the distance, patches of yellow trees inviting us to continue. We passed some grand developments, and eventually found ourselves at the top of a red-sided canyon, which I suddenly realised we had to go down into. I felt quite nervous as my husband wove his way down the switchbacks, asking him to slow down all the time. We could see the main road down on the valley floor - it seemed a long way down. We eventually neared the bottom, where a small community of houses was built. As we'd cut off the corner of the main road we decided to head back up north to see if we'd missed anything along the way. We ended up turning east again, back to the beginning of the Last Dollar Road (having done a complete circle!). The weather hadn't improved since our first loop, so we didn't stop along the way. When we reached the fork again we took the left turn, continuing on the Last Dollar Road.

We drove across a few cattle grids and passed docile bulls standing at the side of the road. The road surface began to worsen, with large potholes and some standing pools of muddy water. We got to a point where it clearly wasn't suitable for our car (a low saloon car) so turned around and headed back, passing a sign we'd missed on the way in explaining that the road was only suitable for 4WD cars from that point on. It was a shame, as it would have been a fun road to explore and would have taken us right down into the outskirts of Telluride, apparently with stunning views of Mt Sneffels in the distance (although it was probably hidden by cloud anyway). As it was it gave us a chance to go down the steep windy road through the red canyon again - this time I felt a bit more relaxed, but still nagged the hubby to drive no faster than 20 mph. I checked online to see if the road had a name - it appears to be called the 58P.

The final approach to Telluride is stunning, heading up into the box canyon past meadows that thankfully haven't been built upon (yet), the sides of the hills lined with firs and yellowing aspens. A week or two later and the trees would have looked spectacular.

I'd first heard of Telluride 9 years earlier in northern Chile, where I met a photographer from there - she had raved about how beautiful it was and she wasn't wrong. In spite of the dull skies it still looked spectacular, with a delicate waterfall and huge walls at the end of the canyon; I can only imagine how wonderful it would be with blue skies! The recent dusting of snow made it look very pretty but didn't help with the washed-out brightness for photographs! We checked into out hotel, the New Sheridan, in the centre of town, and quickly headed out for a hike up to Bear Creek Falls, a popular hike starting from the edge of town.

The hike took us gradually uphill through aspens and douglas firs, the paths littered with fallen golden leaves, The sun had come out behind the mountain, throwing stunning light across the hills behind Telluride in the distance, but the dark sides of the canyon coupled with still white cloudy skies made capturing it tricky. We passed a spot where hikers had made dozens of small cairns - I added a stone to the top of one as my small contribution.

We eventually we reached Bear Creek Falls, a veil-like waterfall flowing delicately down a red wall. Murray sat and read while I played around with filters and exposure times. A helpful patch of blue skies helped me capture the mountains behind without that nasty white sky, but we'd missed a patch of direct sunlight on the peaks by about 15 minutes.

We'd set off late and knew that it would start to get dark soon, so we headed back down the trail towards town, the reward of a nice cold IPA beckoning. A light mist was beginning to come down over the peaks behind us. We chatted to a friendly woman from Oregon who came here each year - I could see why it was her favourite spot.

 

We'd passed the Smuggler's Brewpub on our way to the trailhead, so stopped there for a drink and supper on our return. A sad-looking dog was tied up outside, next to a sign saying "Puppy Park" (they don't seem to get "dog-friendly" in the US - allowing you to tie your dog up outside is not exactly my idea of dog-friendly - why not just let them in?!). We ate delicious ribs with mac'n'cheese and a huge pile of reindeer spag bol. We were still suffering from the effects of the altitude (Telluride is at 8,725 ft or 2,659 m) so only managed a couple of beers before returning to our lovely hotel room for some laptop time.

Next stop: Mesa Verde