BLM NEW MEXICO WILDERNESS
BLM-New Mexico manages 5 wilderness areas, all of which are untrammeled, natural, undeveloped, and have opportunities for solitude or Primitive and Unconfined Recreation. These recreation opportunities include: hiking, hunting, camping, horseback riding, photography, fishing, skiing, snowshoeing, river running, bird watching, climbing, stock packing, canoeing, sightseeing, caving, and orienteering. The 41,170-acre Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a remote desolate area of steeply eroded badlands, which offers some of the most unusual scenery found in the Four Corners region. BLM's Cebolla Wilderness, located within the El Malpais National Conservation Area, includes 61,600 acres of rimrock country. Sandstone mesas, canyons, and grassy valleys characterize the area. An hour northwest of Albuquerque is the 11,000 acre Ojito Wilderness, a high desert landscape of wide-open spaces and exceptional beauty. This area of steep-sided mesas, remote box canyons, meandering arroyos, and austere badlands offers solitude, tranquility, and escape from the congestion of the city. The 16,030-acre Sabinoso Wilderness is a remote area in the northeastern portion of New Mexico. The Wilderness includes a series of high, narrow mesas surrounded by cliff-lined canyons. BLM’s West Malpais Wilderness, located within the El Malpais National Conservation Area, includes 39,540 acres. It encompasses grassland, piñon-juniper woodland, ponderosa pine parkland, and basalt lava fields.
Featured Wilderness Area: Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a rolling landscape of badlands which offers some of the most unusual scenery found in the Four Corners Region. Time and natural elements have etched a fantasy world of strange rock formations made of interbedded sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal, and silt. The weathering of the sandstone forms hoodoos - weathered rock in the form of pinnacles, spires, cap rocks, and other unusual forms. Fossils occur in this sedimentary landform. Translated from the Navajo language, Bisti (Bis-tie) means “a large area of shale hills.” De-Na-Zin (Deh-nah-zin) takes its name from the Navajo words for “cranes.” Visitors can enjoy hiking, camping, horseback riding, photography, and wildlife watching.
All BLM New Mexico Wilderness
A complete list of BLM New Mexico wilderness areas is below:
- Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
- Cebolla Wilderness
- Ojito Wilderness
- Sabinoso Wilderness
- West Malpais Wilderness