I went back to Bisti Wilderness in the afternoon to visit two areas of hoodoos and other formations. Behind what I call black mesa is a labyrinth of passages and many formations. Sometimes is difficult to see where you’re going and you have to climb up on the mounds which can be challenging.

Here I got up high and could see out over the central portion of the relatively flat wash between the badlands on each side. The mounds in the distance are covered in red rocks which was clay overlaying a coal layer. The coal layer burned centuries ago and the burned clay became the red rocks.

Here’s a closeup of one of these mounds and the red rocks.

Once you get behind the black mesa you can find may unique formations. Here’s a couple of images. You can wander around back here for hours finding many interesting sights.

With some difficulty I got to the chocolate hoodoo area. You have to scramble up some of the mounds or mesas to get to the where you can see them. I’ve never found a good way into them and finding your way back down is also challenging. These formations have some bands of brown in them hence the name chocolate hoodoos.

There is so many of them and so much going on it is difficult to good photograph.

As the sun was setting I left for the hike back to the parking lot. Here’s a photo looking back over to where I had been. It looks like just some mesas or hills but mixed in among them are many interesting formations.

Seventy million years ago this was a river delta region on the shores of an ancient sea. Some sediments were lain down during this period. Trees grew here and dinosaurs roamed. Later a volcano covered the area in ash. All these factors and others help make the interesting area that it is today.