If you drive about 2-3 hours West of Albuquerque, you will find a variety of fascinating landscapes to explore. From the canyons, ruins, and buttes of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, to the red rocks and stone formations of Red Rock Park or the Mars-esque topography of Bisti Badlands, there is a never-ending supply of fascinating terrains. These areas are just outside the Navajo Nation, and the only two cities in close proximity to the area are Gallup to the South and Farmington to the North. We stayed in Gallup, as Red Rock Park is there, but it took 2 hours to drive from Chaco/Bisti Badlands to there. The driving time is slightly shorter (1hour 45 minutes) from Chaco up to Farmington. Around Chaco, unless you are camping, there aren’t any places to stay. Likewise there also aren’t any restaurants, so make sure to bring your own food or plan to rely on gas-station snacks when you visit Chaco or Bisti Badlands. Also of note, a lot of the parks are only easily accessible by 4WD, so choose your rental wisely.
Table of Contents
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
Gallup & Red Rock Park
Close-by Attractions Worth Mentioning
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
About a 3 hour drive West from Albuquerque and 2 hours North from Gallup is Chaco Culture National Historical Park, which features Chaco Canyon and the surrounding terrain as well as ruins of over 15 Chocoan buildings created by the Pueblo people around 850-1150 AD. We drove there from Bisti Badlands during the late afternoon, which offered a bit of a conundrum. Google and Apple Maps showed us two different routes–one which took small unpaved country roads with a predicted travel time of 1 hour and 20 minutes, and another which used primarily paved roads but would take us 2 hours. Earlier that day, we had attempted to take a country road which had turned out to be untraversable due to closures, so we were skeptical as to whether the more untamed route would be feasible. However, as we were in a bit of a time crunch, we decided to risk the country roads, which did indeed take us to the place we belonged.
Once you reach Chaco, at the entrance you will see a striking rock structure, the Fajada Butte. There is an area you can pull off to the side of the road with an informational sign and picnic bench, but unfortunately you cannot hike up to or touch the Butte (sorry, Nemo). Then right around the corner you will reach the visitor center, where you can purchase a park pass (free for those with the National Park Pass) and obtain information about the park. The visitor center is pretty much right at the entrance of the one-way 9 mile Canyon Loop Road, which stops at all of the major park sites. Note that the entrance to the Canyon Loop Road closes at 1830 and the exit to it closes at 1900 (at least it did in April). We unfortunately didn’t arrive until 4pm, which gave us limited time. Ideally, I would dedicate a full day to the park.
There are many ruins that you can visit along the Canyon Loop Road drive. The largest and most striking is the Pueblo Bonito, the archaeological site of a Chacoan City. You can walk both around, inside, and on top of the ruin, or see it from above from the Pablo Alto Trail. Other striking sites include the Chetro Ketl and Hungo Pavi, and Casa Rinconada among others.
There are four main hiking trails within the park: Wijiji, South Mesa, Pueblo Alto and Peñasco Trails, ranging from 3.8 to 7.5 miles in length. We did the Pueblo Alto Trail, which is the most popular due to its aerial view of Pueblo Bonito. To get to the trailhead, you must first walk 0.5 miles to Pueblo Arroyo from the parking lot. Then you will have to hike up some rocks and crawl in-between crevices to get to the top of the canyon wall. As you continue the loop, you will pass by the Pueblo Bonito viewing point, thn by Pueblo Alto and New Alto. Unfortunately we had to turn back at this point due to time restrictions, but the trail continued to form a 5.5 mile loop, with 750ft of elevation gain.
Unfortunately, the current administration has recently reversed the protections around the Chaco region that before were safeguarded from oil and gas drilling. I’m not sure how much of the park this will affect, but I would look ahead of time for potential closures.
Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
Wow! Walking around the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness you will feel like Luke Skywalker traversing across a new planet. Colloquially called “Bisti Badlands,” the area spans over 45 acres in the San Juan Basin. “Bisti” is the Navajo term for “a large area of shale hills,” with the terrain containing shale mounds, hoodoos, petrified wood, natural arches, cracked “eggs” and other bizarre formations. “De-Na-Zin” comes from the Navajo phrase “where the sandhill cranes are,” referring to a legend about crane migration as well as petroglyphs of cranes that were found in the area.
The petrified wood dates as far back as 70-75 million years, from the late cretaceous period – the time period characterized by the maximum diversity of dinosaurs, when Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Velociraptor, and Ankylosaurus roamed the land. In fact, the area is also known for its Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils, the most renowned being the “Bisti Beast,” discovered by researcher Paul Sealey in 1997. Dubbed Bistahieversor sealeyi, meaning “Sealey’s Destroyer of the Badlands,” the Bisti Beast was a 30-foot-long carnivore, closely related to and resembling the T. rex. You can see its fossil at the New Mexico Natural History Museum in Albuquerque.
The bizarre geography of the badlands likely formed from a series of events over time. During the Cretaceous, it was intermittently under a narrow stretch of sea that separated North America from East to West. After the ocean retracted, swamps, rivers, and moving mountains likely contributed to the terrain today. Then at the end of the cretaceous, a meteorite struck the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, causing large quantities of dust to settle in the surrounding areas and form a layer of clay, which likely eroded away in the badlands, as no evidence of the clay remains today.
- Badland: Dry, barren terrain with steep slopes, sparse vegetation, and deep maze-like gullies
- Hoodoo: A tall, thin spire of rock
- Petrified Wood: Rossilized wood. In Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, it is made almost entirely of solid quartz
There are two main entry points to the area – Bisti Badlands Trailhead and De-Na-Zin Wilderness Trailhead. Both are free and have parking lots and picnic areas. Bisti also has restrooms available. Note that there is no water available at either locations. We decided to go to Bisti Badlands, which required quite a bit of off-roading to get to. We did have to redirect our map app on the way over as well, as some of the rural roads it recommended were closed. There were several RVs in the area, as well as an old school bus someone had refurbished into a traveling home. Once you reach the parking lot you feel as if you have landed on another world. Per AllTrails, the Bisti Trail consists of a 4.8 mile loop with 187ft of elevation gain. However, the trail is not marked pretty much at all, and you can wander in various directions easily exploring different aspects of the terrain, so can also make that loop as long or as short as you want – we walked for ~3.5 miles, which took us ~1 hour 45 minutes with frequent stops. The terrain mostly consists of hardened sand, and unless you scramble up one of the rock structures, the it is pretty much flat. There are little to no live plants in the area.
From the De-Na-Zin Wilderness trail to the overlook, it is 2.8 miles there and back but the trails go on for miles after that throughout the wilderness.
Gallup & Red Rock Park
Not as well known as Colorado’s Red Rocks Park and amphitheater, New Mexico’s Red Rock Park was a pleasant surprise, with its Pyramid Rock Trail being our favorite hike that trip. The Park is located in Gallup, a small town whose allure is being along Route 66. Gallup is about a 2 hour drive from both Bisti/Chaco area as well as Albuquerque. We stayed at El Rancho, a historic Route 66 themed hotel with gift shop, restaurant, and lounge attached to it. Each room in the main house is themed based off of Hollywood stars who stayed at the hotel while filming Westerns in the 1930s-40s. Of note in the lobby on the second floor, there is a secret room you can access by removing a book from a bookshelf. Unfortunately, the secret room was down when we visited.
Red Rock Park is a privately operated, former state park, that showcases beautiful red sandstone cliffs that formed over 200 million years ago, during the Mesozoic Era. It offers free hiking, but also so much more. It has an arena that hosts rodeos, Native American Dance showcases, and other events, a convention center, a museum, as well as campgrounds. One of the best time to visit the park is during early December, when it hosts both the Red Rock Balloon Rally featuring over 150 hot air balloons, as well as the Pyramid Rock Trail Run – a four-mile trail race benefiting local school bands.
There are two main hikes available – Pyramid Rock Trail and Church Rock Trail – as well as a network of trails connecting the two and extending past them. We started by hiking up to Pyramid Rock, then upon realizing there was a trail connecting Pyramid to Church Rock, we decided to stop by Church Rock on the way back. While it very helpful to have AllTrails to help guide you through some of the more poorly marked areas of trail, it also had some inaccuracies, causing us to have to backtrack several times as we diverged off of the main paths. What had started out as a planned 3.4 mile hike to Pyramid Rock and back turned into a 9 mile hike.
I would recommend sticking to the main Pyramid Rock and Church Rock Trails, as well as the connecting trail in between.
Along the trails, there are stacks of rocks in pyramid formations to mark the trail in more obscure areas of the hike.
- Pyramid Rock Trail: About 3.4 miles there and back, with 754ft of elevation gain, which takes you to the top of Pyramid Rock at 7,487ft, with a panoramic view of the surrounding scenery.
- Church Rock Trail: Per AllTrails, 2.2 miles there and back with 252ft of elevation gain, however if you want to get all the way to and around the Church Rock, you will have to hike about an extra mile further. It is difficult to climb all the way on top of Church Rock, but on the far side there is a slanted way up for those more adventurous than I.
Close-by Attractions Worth Mentioning (those I did not have time for)
Aztec Ruins National Monument
If you decide to stay in Farmington instead of Gallup, this monument will only be a 30 minute drive away. It is about 1.5 hours from Chaco, and 3 hours from Albuquerque. It contains some of the best-preserved Chocoan structures from the ancestral Pueblo people, similar to those in Chaco, as well as some trails. Admission is free.
Acoma Pueblo
This is a Native American city on top of a 367ft tall mesa, dubbed “the sky city.” It is along the way driving from Albuquerque to Gallup, so could be a good stop to break up the drive. It is visitable only via tours, which are available every half hour during opening times. Winter and Summer hours are different, and it is not open every day during the winter, so I would check their website to determine the times available during the time you visit. From what I can see, tours start at $23/person.
~ Buen Viaje ~