The Price of Fame

[AlanLichty]

I made a pilgrimage down to the badlands of New Mexico to finish what I started a couple of years ago and take my time to explore the Bisti/De-na-zin wilderness. At the time a couple of years ago there was a casual churn of visitors as seen from the parking area but the parking area was somewhat generous compared to the median occupancy.

Sadly I have to report that the reputation of this place has been not only well documented but absorbed by the traveling populace with the all too familiar outcome.

I pulled into an open area behind two other RV's that were already there last night with some rather notable winds blowing dust/sand everywhere. This what the scene looked like when wandering back from the "wilderness" side of the fence:

For the record I am the one on the right here. The solitary car off to the left was a couple from Austria that pitched a tent later in the evening.

During the night after the winds died down I heard a couple of cars pull in and discharge their inhabitants just before I got up to prep for a Milky Way shooting session around 3:30am. I didn't think much about it at the time and those folks hiked back out and left right around sunrise. I never saw them or any lights from them while I was out shooting. I went back out after breakfast to shoot some more and when I got back this is what the scene looked like:

As it turned out cold temperatures overnight triggered a leak in what turned out to be a defective propane regulator in my RV so I had to shut down the gas supply and pack up to head into Farmington for repairs. It was probably less then 10 minutes after I took this shot but during that time several more cars showed up and I had to wave off a lady that was getting ready to parallel park right behind me in between the car you see in this image and my RV. She acted somewhat annoyed that I wasn't smiling enough when I stopped her from snuggling up to my rear bumper and made her park somewhere else so I could leave.

My early afternoon hike was focused on a more remote part of the area to the north of the usual haunts but I could still observe groups over on the south side of the Bisti engaging in groups shots and selfies on top of the various formations.

I decided not to bother returning after getting my propane regulator replaced in Farmington. I did get a bunch of workable shots out of my sessions there so no regrets but it was sad to note what it meant for an area like this to be "discovered".......

 

[Ben Egbert]

I guess it's best to keep them secret.

 

[AlanLichty]

Bisti is a very far cry from being a secret. One couple I encountered while well off the beaten path asked if I knew much about the place and what was just past where we were at the time. Turned out they were carrying a book about the Bisti that identified and showed locations of just about anything you might want to see there.

 

[JimFox]

What day was this?

I haven’t seen it that crowded but I have been there with a couple of RV’s, a camper and a half dozen cars. But in the last year I have been there with no one in the parking lot by myself. But most often I am there with another vehicle or two.

I guess it’s bound to get worse in terms of crowdedness.

Sorry to hear about your issue with your RV. Where are you headed to now?

 

[AlanLichty]

What day was this?

I haven’t seen it that crowded but I have been there with a couple of RV’s, a camper and a half dozen cars. But in the last year I have been there with no one in the parking lot by myself. But most often I am there with another vehicle or two.

I guess it’s bound to get worse in terms of crowdedness.

Sorry to hear about your issue with your RV. Where are you headed to now?

That was this afternoon.

I got a new regulator in Farmington and am probably head for Bluff tomorrow.

 

[AlanLichty]

One other comment to add to my observations of the other Bisti visitors - I did not see anyone carrying a tripod. I presume the folks who came in the night visit had them but they were gone before I ever saw them. None of the people getting out of the vehicles in the parking lot shot from yesterday was carrying one.

 

[Douglas Sherman]

It is a sad state of affairs out there today. When I was coming home from Bryce Canyon a couple of weeks ago we came back through Page and the parking lot for the Great Bend of the Colorado River was jammed packed with cars and tour busses. There were also cars lined up along the road for half a mile before and after the entrance to the parking lot. When I first went there is the seventies you could actually drive a 4WD vehicle down to the overlook area and sleep there until morning. There was no one else around. The Waterholes areas was also packed. It makes me sick to see what has happened. The other sad part of this is that these are not Americans for the most part.