Bisti Badlands & Tree Train

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Our southwestern locale offers still new adventure possibilities and the Bisti Badlands Wilderness 25 miles south of Farmington, New Mexico, and about 90 minutes from Durango is just another example.

While Stanna was snowshoeing (or attempting to snowshoe) in the early snows of the La Plata’s with her Wednesday hiking ladies, I was treading on the high desert sands of the Bisti Badlands.  Another geologic wonder uplifted 25 million of years ago and according to Wikipedia “uncovered” by the melting glaciers 6 thousand years ago.

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In addition to the hundreds of sandstone Hoodoo’s eroding from the remnants of the geologic Colorado Plateau sands of it’s inland seas, there are amazingly well preserved petrified trees, stumps and logs.  One can’t help trying to visualize that ancient environment when you see a tree much like one lying in our contemporary forests with it’s knots and roots still exposed.

Mike Taylor and Ryler add perspective to the IMG_4292.JPG40′ log resting on linear pillars of yet-to-erode sand. Will our trees become just another layer of geologic history?  Undoubtedly so.

Wis Train

Two days and one Xmas party later, I’m on the Christmas Tree Train heading up the Animas Valley to the winter terminus of the Durango Silverton Narrow Guage Train at the Cascade Wye where volunteers for the Forest Service will help passengers cut their own Christmas trees to be transported back to Durango in the train’s boxcar.

It’s a new feature of the winter train schedule, where they are combining the novelty of picking and cutting your own National Forest tree (permit $8) with a FireWise fire mitigation program to prevent fires starting along the railroad right-of-way.  Getting a volunteer spot on the inaugural train was competitive because of the uncertainty of a subsequent collaboration between the train and the National Forest.  I caught Mike hauling a young family’s trophy tree back to the boxcar.

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IMG_4304 (1)They only allow 30 tree-cutting permits on each of the 6 days the program is running because the box car only holds 30 trees (up to 20′ each).  Quite a bargain at $8 a tree as long as you discount the train fare at $60 for adults and $36 for children.  The first Saturday they were oversold with 31 trees but on this Friday we only had 10 families to participate.

Amazing as it sounds, people are coming from as far away as California.  We loaded a 20’+ tree in the back of a pickup headed 7 hours over three passes north to Vail.

IMG_4309 (1)IMG_4314And just because people ask about snow in Durango, here’s the latest snow accumulation in Durango on December 12th, 12 hours after returning from the Tree Train excursion where the grass was showing at the train station.