How to create advanced desert style terrain like this

Millionviews

Hello!
I am new to polycount but not new in computer graphics! I am currently working on a mars project and already have some amazing results. There are a couple of things however that I miss and really would love to hear some insights of other game dev proffs. 

I want to rebuild this scene: 
http://mars.nasa.gov/imgs/2015/12/Marias-Pass-Contact-Zone-Martian-Rock-Units-pia20174-MAIN-flt-noscl.jpg
It is quite an advanced desert style slate rock formation hill that is extremly difficult to create. At least, I am having a hard time. One can feel the erosion al over, the dryness, the ancient river that flowed etc etc etc. 

So far, I have been able to create this and I am happy with the look and feel of it.
http://www.millionviews.com/mobile_v5/mars-2015-v2/

But somehow I really miss the organic and nature looking feel of this terrain. I just discovered World machine and noticed that you can really create a nature looking terrain very easy. But then, I just can't get this mars nasa example out of WM. I tried a combination of using the normal map of WM and overlayed it with my orginal slate rock textures but I am not getting there. 


What do you guys think would be the best workflow here? I must say that I want to avoid mudbox  / zbrush. This scene is just one of +- 200 chunks that I need to process!
Looking forward for ideas, tips etc!!

Best regards! Tom

bugo

Cool folio and screenshots and yeah you're right, That looks like it needs 2 types of terrains, one for the rock foundation and the other for the sand, but you will also need separate models of rock for the horizontal cuts which requires a lot of modeling, you can try using houdini or vue for some of these rocks.