The Lybrook Badlands

The Lybrook Badlands are a New Mexico gem, only a few miles to the side of a major highway. They’re a fantastic photo opportunity, yet few people have seen them. Far fewer have actually gotten down in there to explore. In April 2008, I stopped at a colorful place along U.S. 550 which I called the “Lybrook-Nageezi Badlands.” This is the area that painter Georgia O’Keeffe called the “Black Place.” I decided that on my next trip i would cross the road and check out Lybrook itself.

The upper level was relatively accessible, with rocky and sandy spots where four-wheel drive helped. I found side roads to many gas wells along the cliffs. Some had spectacular views, but there was no apparent way down into the lower badlands. Actually, there’s a lot to see up top. At the western end, a few hundred feet below the “Grand Overlook,” is a wonderful area I call the “Yellow Rim,” still well above the lower badlands.

I contacted some German bloggers, Gerd and Silke who had posted Lybrook photos. I learned that the best way in was off the road between Nageezi and Chaco Canyon. A half-year of systematic exploration began. By November I had made six more trips into Lybrook and given names to some areas. There was the circular basin dotted with massive tall hoodoos that I called “Eden.” I dubbed the rugged valley wrapped around it the “Land of Nod.” The best hoodoos are in the west parts of the badlands. The closer you get to the cliffs, the more otherworldly things get.

The Lybrook Badlands are set apart from the others by their rugged relief. The upper reaches tower hundreds of feet above the rest. From there you can plot out your adventures, like looking over a vast 3D map. It’s spectacular and deserving of some sort of preservation. The scars from the extraction industry are severe, but the resulting “roads” give entry into the most rugged hoodoo-lands I have seen.