Is the Bisti like Mars?

Far View
©Joe Bridwell
A surreal, even sepulchral land can be found in the Bisti. It's even more interesting when you consider the origin of Red Dog Hills, the centerpiece. But, don't let the actual Bisti location dictate your imagination; perhaps you actually landed on Mars to take this dramatic off-world image...

Memories...
One of graduate school's luxuries was the opportunity to study Mars from some earliest satellite photos.
Nevertheless, 40 years ago, I would not have imagined one day trekking a land which so vibrantly reminds me of visual concepts of Mars. Naturally, I can remember TV of the first moon landing.
Now, I must admit, that was in days before they found evidence of water on Mars.

Opportunity, the Mars rover, surveyed the rim and interior of Victoria Crater on the Red Planet from September 2006 through August 2008. Originally designed for a 90 day life, in January, Mars rovers, our remote sources for knowledge of water on Mars, were five years old and still chugging. In a May 21, 2009 news release, NASA said,
"Water repeatedly came and left billions of years ago. Wind persisted much longer, heaping sand into dunes between ancient water episodes. These activities still shape the Martian landscape today."

Red Dog Hills
In Oh My, I provided an explanation of the origin of red dog hills, from memory.
"Seventy million years ago, a Cretaceous Seaway deposited peat and coal across the Bisti in nearby lagoons before dinosaurs became extinct. Thunderstorms, akin to severe monsoon conditions, created dominated lightning strikes to impact the coal - setting it afire. These coal fires smoldered underground for long periods of time, turning sediments to an orange-red."

I Stand Corrected...
Bill Pelzmann, a very knowledgeable reader, sent these remarks:
"These clinkers were formed by coal fires in relatively recent history, certainly AFTER uplift, erosion and exposure of the coal beds. There are numerous coal fires currently burning underground in the San Juan Basin."
In geological lingo, clinker is the name for orange-red sediments which make up the Red Dog Hills.
And, I didn't know we had underground coal fires currently burning in northwestern New Mexico! WOW!!!
Thanks, Bill!

Now, Bill, If You Could Just Help Again...
Far View is a very distinctive Bisti image.
Unfortunately, I've tried to find where I shot this image this image, but failed.
Bill, do you know where it was taken?

For me, Far View seems like a bridge between all today's technology and ancient, true marvels of other planets...

Enjoy...

Bisti Badlands...

Solitude
© Joe Bridwell

Four horses resting before a Red Dog Hill...
I'd walked a ridge with a small herd of Navajo horses keeping pace in the wash below.  We both stopped a moment; my eyes widened sharply at the spectacular scene they and amazing Red Dog Hill created… 
In four years of shooting the Bisti, I've never seen another scene that begins to approach this dramatic vision!

Client Tour Request
A client wrote me a recent letter about my leading another photography tour to the Bisti.  "Four years ago in July I spent a day hiking in the Bisti wilderness.  I'd learned very little about the area before I went.  I loved every minute of it, but I really didn't know where I was going or what to look for.  I doubt I saw more than 5% of the 'neat stuff'."
I searched 2004-2009 images to assemble a fascinating Bisti collage.  Beyond evoking sharply cogent memories, I collected some Best of Bisti images.  This visual Bisti history contains several fine art photography categories; Fossil Forests, Horses, Landscapes, Magic Hour, Shapes, and Textures. 

Best of Bisti Slideshow Available
On reflection, I thought, "With occasional, yet random timing, I want to include some remarkable Bisti images on the blog at Pathways of Light.  I think viewers would appreciate the incredible variability and almost incalculable opportunity for fine art digital photography the Bisti provides ..."
If you'd like to see these evocative images on your computer, simply click to order your own color slide show ~ "Best of Bisti" ! 
Or, check out Paths of Light, a photo book about Magic Hour light in the southwest US on blurb.com!

Enjoy...