Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness is located in

San Juan County, New Mexico San Juan County is located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 121,661 making it the fifth-most populous county in New Mexico. Its county seat is Aztec. The county was created in 1887. San Juan Count ...

, between

Chaco Canyon Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in the American Southwest hosting a concentration of pueblos. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote c ...

and the De-Na-Zin Wilderness. Its name is a phonetic transliteration of Navajo " áshįįh łibá" meaning "salt, it is grey (grey salt)". The wilderness has multicolored

badland Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...

s, sandstone hoodoos,

petrified wood Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek meaning 'rock' or 'stone'; literally 'wood turned into stone'), is the name given to a special type of '' fossilized wood'', the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. ' ...

and

dinosaur bones A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

, similar to those found in the nearby Bisti Badlands and De-Na-Zin Wilderness.

History

The BLM Wilderness Study Area (WSA) was declared in May 1992 and would protect an area of about 26.5 km² (6,563 acres). The area was prospected by the dinosaur hunter Charles Hazelius Sternberg in the summer of 1921. Sternberg collected the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes th ...

of '' Pentaceratops fenestratus'', a ceratopsid dinosaur from the late

Cretaceous Period The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of t ...

, within the WSA. Specimens from this area form a significant part of the

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with c ...

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

collection at the Museum of Evolution,

University of Uppsala Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

, Sweden.Sullivan, R.M. 2006. Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness Study Area (San Juan Basin, New Mexico): A paleontological (and historical) treasure and resource. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 34:169-174.
PDF
Fossil collecting here without a permit is prohibited by law. The

John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act The John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of 2019 is an Omnibus bill, omnibus lands act that protected public lands and modified management provisions. The bill designated more than of National Wilderness Preservation ...

, signed March 12, 2019, authorizes the establishment of the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness as a component of the National Wilderness Preservation System, protecting approximately 7,242 acres.

Geology

Rock units within the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah WSA include most of the upper

Fruitland Formation The Fruitland Formation is a geologic formation found in the San Juan Basin in the states of New Mexico and Colorado, in the United States of America. It contains fossils dating it to the Campanian age of the late Cretaceous.

(Fossil Forest Member) and lower part of the

Kirtland Formation The Kirtland Formation (originally the Kirtland Shale) is a sedimentary geological formation. Description The Kirtland Formation is the product of alluvial muds and overbank sand deposits from the many channels draining the coastal plain th ...

(Hunter Wash Member), both late Cretaceous in age. The rocks are dominated by mudstones and intermittent

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

s, with occasional resistant channel sandstones.

References

External links

Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness, Bureau of Land Management

Ah Shi Sle Pah Wash, Hoodoo king of the San Juan Basin badlands
at ''Inside Outside Southwest'' magazine
Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah gallery
by photographer John Fowler
Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness
at

Wikimapia Wikimapia is a geographic online encyclopedia project. The project implements an interactive "clickable" web map that utilizes Google Maps with a geographically-referenced wiki system, with the aim to mark and describe all geographical objects ...

{{authority control Cretaceous geology of New Mexico Bureau of Land Management areas in New Mexico Protected areas of San Juan County, New Mexico Rock formations of New Mexico Landforms of San Juan County, New Mexico Nature reserves in New Mexico 1992 establishments in New Mexico Protected areas established in 1992

History

Geology

See also

References

External links