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| Hiking | 9.91 Miles |
389 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.91 Miles | 3 Hrs 33 Mns | | 2.79 mph |
| 389 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | The last time I hiked Off the Beaten Path, was Onyx Bridge in 2016. Today, I hiked the Clam Beds-Red Basin Loop — except as a figure 8.
There’s a fair amount of traffic on Blue Mesa Scenic Rd., so take care on the narrow shoulder.
A ¼ mile past the wooden barriers, I turned left up a wide, sandy, wash. (All the many washes on this hike are sandy, varying from smooshy & slow to firm & fast.) Even off-trail as mellow as the Petrified Forest is tiring, so I wanted to do the interesting parts first, easy road walking last. 
I skirted an off limits area for a mile, before reaching the base of Blue Mesa, which I followed for a ½ mile to the Sandstone Congregate Amphitheater. I’m not a geologist, so I am unsure what the various rock types are, but the congregate seemed to be boulder-size clumps of the smooth sea-bottom pebbles which otherwise cover the whole Blue Mesa – Red Basin – Billings Gap area.
From the Sandstone Congregate Amphitheater, I headed east for ⅓ mile to the jeep trail, which I followed south for ¼ mile, crossing the middle of my figure 8 route for the first time. Before reaching Dry Creek Tank, I turned northeast up a wash, towards the Clam Beds.
Like the sandsone congregate, the clam shells were densely packed in boulders. Brown and red shells predominated, I guess because the decayed shells were also replaced by mineralization? 
After many Clam Beds photos — I shot over 200 total photos today — I stayed on the official Petrified Forest route, heading left up a 20 ft. saddle between the mesa and the near cone, then turning right towards the second cone. It would have been quicker to head straight towards waypoint 5.
I don’t remember anything special about the second butte, but as anywhere in the Petrified Forest, even a cursory search will find interesting samples of petrified wood.
At waypoint 7, just past the lone juniper, I could see a fenceline In front of Red Basin, ⅓ mile away, with what appeared to be tires hanging from it. I aimed for the middle “tire”.
As with every other fenceline on this hike, no fence remained — just posts. Also, the “tires” turned out to be coils of barbed wire. I followed the posts towards the Sand Castles (waypoint 8 ), on the edge of Red Basin.
The Sand Castles were interesting, but there are plenty of other sandy, white, hoodoos in the Petrified Forest, particularly a few miles back, with cloudy blue sky high angle backdrop along the upper edge of Blue Mesa. Red Basin, though, is stunning. 
Exiting Red Basin, I spent 15 minutes marvelling at a massive petrified log, and taking pictures. The petrified log is so massive, it shows on satellite view!
5½ miles into my Clam Beds-Red Basin hike, I reached Billings Gap Gate. Crossing the middle of my figure 8 for the second time, I followed the jeep trail 2½ miles back to the wooden barriers at Blue Mesa Scenic Rd. 
There was actually some muddy spots in the jeep trail. Along it, I spotted the only desert globemallow of my day. The only other flowers I saw were some bushy yellow thing, which were fairly plentiful and may have been goldenrod, and a purple thing that was some variety of tansyaster.
It was a long, but enjoyable day in the Petrified Forest. I really need to get up there more often!
Hike Video: https://vimeo.com/639090598 |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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