Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness

Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness

A view at Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness

The Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness includes about 7,242 acres a few miles north of Chaco Culture National Historic Park in northwestern New Mexico. The landscape is a rolling landscape of water-eroded clay hills. There's almost no vegetation to obscure the multi-colored geological layers of rock and sand, and hoodoos, balanced rocks and fossils can be found everywhere. The sparse vegetation includes pińon-juniper, sagebrush, Great Basin scrubland and grassland.

There are significant specimens of petrified wood around, including logs and stumps with roots still attached. There is a small drainage in a wide and shallow east-west valley bordered by eroded ridges and cliffs on the north and south. The colors are a wild mix of soft pastels, some not found anywhere else.

If there's water on the ground out there, you don't want to be there: you may be stuck for a while.

There are no marked trails in the wilderness: you'll want a good map, good hiking shoes, plenty of water (because there is none out there) and perhaps a good GPS device.

Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness map