Forget Area 51 — New Mexico’s Badlands Truly Looks Like Mars on Earth

The Bisti Badlands, New Mexico

You’re looking at the weirdest 45,000 acres in the Southwest. The Bisti Badlands are what you’d get if you let Mother Nature go full Salvador Dalí, complete with stone wings, mushroom rocks, and landscapes that look like CGI. Except it’s all real and look absolutely breathtaking.

The Rocks Have Taken Surprising Shapes

Nature has sculpted the rocks here into forms that look almost handmade. Some white rocks called ‘Cracked Eggs’ are about 5 to 6.5 feet long and really do look like giant broken eggs scattered on the ground.

Tall ‘Hoodoo’ rocks stand like mushrooms, some reaching four stories high, created when hard rock on top protected softer rock underneath from rain and wind. You can also see thin rock ‘wings’ that stick out sideways up to 10 feet while staying just inches thick.

A Great Sea Once Covered This Desert

Seventy million years ago, a huge sea split North America in two, stretching from Mexico all the way to the Arctic. The Bisti Badlands sat right at its edge, where the water was about 2,800 feet deep.

When you walk through the area today, you can spot old seashells in the rocks, including spiral ammonite shells as wide as car tires. The different layers of rock you see – sandstone, shale, and coal – were built up over time as the sea left behind sand, mud, and dead plants.

Dark Skies Make Perfect Star-Viewing Conditions

The Bisti Badlands sits far from city lights, making it one of the darkest places in the Southwest. The night sky here earns a 2 on the Bortle scale, meaning it’s almost completely free from light pollution.

On moonless nights, you can see thousands of stars. From April through September, the Milky Way stretches across the sky above the rock formations.

Mineral Deposits Create a Rainbow of Colors

Different minerals in the rocks paint the Badlands in various colors. Iron turns the stone red and brown, while manganese creates purple and black stripes. The colors look most vivid at sunrise and sunset, changing minute by minute as the sun moves.

After it rains, the wet rocks show even deeper colors. You’ll see layers of different types of rock here – Dakota sandstone, Fruitland shale, Kirtland mudstone, and coal seams as thick as a one-story room.

Visitors Must Find Their Own Path

Unlike regular parks, the Bisti Badlands has no trails or signs to follow. People navigate using GPS or landmarks like Black Ridge and Honey Pool wash. Without marked paths, each visit becomes a journey of discovery through the 45,000 acres.

The Bureau of Land Management asks visitors to bring at least a gallon of water per person each day, as the landscape can be confusing even for experienced hikers.

Rich Deposits of Unusual Minerals Exist Here

The rocks in the Bisti Badlands contain rare minerals not commonly found elsewhere. The amount of selenium here is a hundred times higher than in normal rocks, and special plants like prince’s plume grow only in these selenium-rich soils.

Large deposits of clinker, a rock formed by underground coal fires that burned at 1,800°F, can be found throughout the area. These mineral-rich rocks help scientists study how the climate changed over millions of years.

Weather Shapes the Desert Landscape

The weather here can change dramatically, with temperatures sometimes rising or falling in one day. Summer brings days above 100°F, while winter nights can make the temperature drop drastically.

When rare storms hit, they send walls of water through narrow valleys, carving new paths in the soft rock. The wind carries sand that slowly wears away at the harder rocks, removing up to half an inch each year.

Laws Protect This Special Wilderness

Since 1984, federal law has kept the Bisti Badlands safe from development. No one can drive vehicles here or take anything from the land – even small rocks or fossils – with fines up to $100,000 for breaking these rules.

Rangers and volunteers regularly check the area to prevent damage. They make sure natural processes can continue while keeping human impact to a minimum.

Desert Animals Make Their Home Here

Despite getting only 8 inches of rain each year, many animals live in the Bisti Badlands. Kit foxes and desert rabbits find shelter among the rocks, while golden eagles patrol territories thousands of acres wide.

The area supports fifteen different kinds of lizards and nine types of snakes, including the rarely seen desert horned viper. Plants like four-wing saltbush and Great Basin sage survive by growing roots up to 30 feet deep.

The Land Holds Deep Cultural Meaning

The Navajo people, who call themselves Diné, have lived near the Bisti Badlands for centuries. There are local guides, like Kialo Winters, offer tours that highlight the geologic and cultural heritage of the area.

The ‘De-Na-Zin’ part of the wilderness area’s name means ‘cranes’ in Navajo, referring to bird drawings carved into rocks. These rock art panels, some 1,000 years old, show cranes, geometric patterns, and hunting scenes.

Scientists Study Earth’s History in the Rocks

Researchers use the Bisti Badlands to look back through 70 million years of Earth’s past. They can read 25 different layers of rock like pages in a book, each telling about ancient swamps and river deltas.

In addition to that, a new dinosaur species, Bistahieversor sealeyi, a primitive relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, was discovered in the area, with a Bistahieversor sealeyi ‘teenager’s’ skeleton found between 1989 and 1990, and a fully grown one unearthed in 1998.