Bisti Badlands Day Two

One our second day camping and riding at Bisti Badlands, we woke up after a very cold night, and fed our horses then prepared our own breakfast.



It was surprising the extreme temperature differences between daytime and night time.
The day before, temps were in the 80's but by the time we crawled into our beds inside our horse trailers, the temps had dropped into the 20's!
And by the time we finished breakfast, we were peeling off warm layers, and I put on a t-shirt.

Loving on my one eye wonder horse!



Apache and I standing beside the Bisti Badlands Wilderness trail head sign.

We planned to saddle up and ride for a couple hours, then load up and drive home.

Apache didn't like this poorly designed equestrian entrance/exit gate. It is a very narrow box, with double high step-over rails, that were as high as Apache's knees. She literally had to slide her knees over the top of the rails.

And the gate made it impossible to open and close from horseback because of the chute-design. There were also a couple of low horizontal rails that were dangerous because they stuck out away from the vertical posts and threatened to grab lead ropes and reins. And you probably can't see them, but there is a bunch of thin wire criss-crossed under and all around the gate to keep the rails and posts secure, but they could easily get a horse's feet tangled up if a horse panicked inside this chute design.

Apache and I have ridden over and through and across many different equestrian gates and this was the worst designed one we have ever seen.

But after we led our horses through the gate, we mosied around the Bisti Bandlands looking for interesting formations.

On this day, Judith and I were on our own and it was very nice and laid back compared to the day before.

Cathy had invited several friends to ride with us and one of them had a hot-blooded exciteable gelding that couldn't manage walking. His rider had to direct his horse in constant circles, both large and small. This horse was literally running around our group and was soaked in sweat. The horse's high energy made all of our horses nervous and even Cathy's horse started bucking at one point.

But on this second day, it was just the two of us riding the Bisti, and we enjoyed the calm, quiet and relaxation.

 

Apache and I posing between two sandstone mounds.

We discovered many stunning rock formations and hoodoos.

And we both took turns leading and exploring the many small canyons.

The terrain is basically flat, so it's a very easy place to ride, which is a good thing, because you can focus on looking at all the amazing rock formations instead of worrying about steep areas to negotiate.

Looks like another planet!

Judith said this would make a great horse table. Bucket was waiting for treats to appear.

Bisti Badlands Selfie!

Bisti Badlands Between the Ears

There are also small hills to ride up to explore other areas. But only if you want to.

Judith and I did a little climbing.

Which made for some awesome photos!

Riding on Planet Mars

The color contrast between the black hills and white hoodoos was interesting.

Bad Ass Bisti Badlands!

Judith and I had a great time exploring and our horses seemed to enjoy our relaxed pace on this day.

But after a couple hours we headed back to our horse trailers so we could drive home and not get home too late.

We made it back to the trail head arout lunch time and noticed that the main parking area was packed full of vehicles! It's a good thing there is another parking area for overflow and horse trailers just north of the main parking lot.

What a fantastic experience we had at Bisti Badlands! And I marked off another Bucket List Ride!



Life is Good!!