Bisti Badlands and The Alien Throne

Bisti Badlands

My jaw dropped in awe. Compared to the view I got from the parking lot two miles out I was shocked to see the alien like landscape of the Bisti Badlands right in front of me. The glow of the setting sun bounced perfectly off the oddly shaped and formed rocks. It literally seemed as I was on another planet.

Bisti Badlands is somewhere I had wanted to go for over a year before actually making the trek. I had seen stunning images online and knew it was an amazing place to experience and photograph. I don’t know exactly what it was that kept me from making the relatively short six-hour drive to see the badlands but the day finally came when I decided to visit Western New Mexico.

The drive in was incredibly confusing which was frustrating as I think I should always know where everything is and how to navigate. It was another reminder that finding my way to a place is just another part of the journey to get there. I initially turned onto the wrong dirt road and drove 10 miles or so up on some pretty harsh washboard. The worst part about it all was realizing that I was heading the wrong way and had to go back another 10 miles on the same road. It was later in the day too so I was in a bit of a rush to make it to the parking area and then hike to the “Alien Throne” before sunset.

I made it back to the main road and did even more research on top of the countless hours I had already spent looking into directions before I left my house. I figured out where the right road was and jetted down the two-lane highway to it. I highly suggest researching the area in advance because there are multiple places within the badlands that have beautiful out of this world landscapes and it can be confusing trying to find a specific one.

A few miles up the road I came across some horses passing by. I don’t know if it was the sandwiches in the trunk or my good looks but one of the horses came right up to me! It was a super cool experience to interact so closely with a wild animal. Another couple of miles down the road I took a right onto another dirt road and was greeted by a not so pleasant sight. There was a horse laying on the side of the road in grotesque fashion that I won’t go into detail on. This was very off-putting to see but it didn’t deter me from my destination in mind. It made the race to get to the throne and back to the car by dark that much more real.

I used the all-trails app to help navigate to the parking area which really is just an open field. There isn’t much in the area so you can really just park anywhere near the marking for the trailhead. The All-Trails definitely let me down a little on my navigation to find the parking area as there were roads that weren’t actually there but regardless my trusty 4Runner made it out. You could probably make the drive with a decent clearance 2wd car.

The All-Trails did just fine guiding myself and my friend Max on the hiking portion of the adventure. Immediately after dropping down a small hill there are some awesome textures and rock formations around. It is only about a mile and a half hike from the parking lot to the Alien Throne, but I would consider leaving more time to photograph the amazing scenery that can be found along the way. The area right before and around the Alien Throne has some really cool formations that I stopped to photograph for a while and would go back just to see that.

The map and guidance from All-Trails does lead directly to the throne, if you are just going off directions online though, just make sure near the end of the hike to go up over the small hill and come back down to get to the Throne.

This hike and location all around really were an amazing place. I mainly used by wide angle lens to capture the vastness of the interesting formations, but a telephoto lens could be great to take pictures of some textures and contrast in the rocks. The area is relatively easy to photograph as there is so much beauty around but it can also be overwhelming. I recommend finding some sort of a larger rock to use as the main focal point and maybe including some rocks or textures in the foreground for depth. The Alien Throne is a great example of a large formation to use as a focal point in an image. I got some awesome sun star photos at the Throne as the sun was setting and some really cool sunset pictures of the surrounding area. There is certainly a lot more to explore and photograph in this epic New Mexico location and it is on the list to go back to.