New Mexico

Debra and I were supposed to do a bunch of hiking on Cedar Mesa (aka Bears Ears), but then I told her about this place I saw on Pinterest called the Bisti Badlands in New Mexico and even though it was slightly far away, we still wanted to check it out.

There are no trails, so we just wandered. There was this mysterious energy to the place; I don't know how to describe it. We were a little disappointed that we couldn't find any of the cool rock formations we saw in the pictures, but there's something magic about just exploring a wild, desolate place with no other people around. It felt untouched. We saw huge areas of petrified wood and hardly any footprints.

We had some extra time that afternoon so we also visited Chaco Canyon, one of my very favorite places. I like it better than Mesa Verde. It's just another one of those really weird/special places.

We got stuck at a cheap Motel 6 that night which was right across from an adult video store and a billboard that said "Jesus is watching you." (Put there by the Catholic church.)

We visited the ruins of another pueblo the next morning, and there is a vast difference between federal land and privately owned ruins! These were right next to a trailer park and were so noisy with all the neighbor's chickens and peacocks (!).