The Adobe Badlands are a barren area with a moonlike landscape located between

Delta, Colorado Delta is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Delta County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 9,035 at the 2020 United States census. The United States Forest Service headqua ...

, U.S. and

Grand Mesa The Grand Mesa is a large mesa in western Colorado in the United States. It is the largest flat-topped mountain in the world. It has an area of about and stretches for about east of Grand Junction between the Colorado River and the Gunnison ...

. Part of the badlands lie within the Adobe Badlands Wildlife Study Area (WSA), owned and managed by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

. The wildlife study area overlaps with the larger Adobe Badlands

Area of Critical Environmental Concern Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is a conservation ecology program in the Western United States, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ACEC program was conceived in the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act ( ...

(ACEC).

Geographical features

Two documented geographical features occur within the wildlife study area, and one is found outside of it but within the area of critical environmental concern. Devils Thumb, a rock pilar, elevation , and Petrie Mesa, elevation , are within the WSA. The Adobe Buttes, elevation , lie to the east of the WSA and are within the ACEC. There are no formal trails within the Adobe Badlands, but one can hike anywhere in them, for there is practically no vegetation to get in the way. However, the clay-like nature of the shale makes hiking difficult when the ground is wet.

Geology

The badlands are made up of Mancos Shale.

References

External links

* * {{Commons category-inline Bureau of Land Management areas in Colorado Geography of Delta County, Colorado