California Here We Come - Day Four

Wow! What a great day we had. We left Santa Fe by 10am and headed toward Arizona and the Petrified Forest National Park. It was really windy on the road but do'able. We arrived at 1:00 or so and after watching a short video, we headed out.

We are now the proud owners of Senior Passes for all National Parks. For $10.00 each, we get in free to every park we visit! Such a deal!

Unless you are planning to take some serious hikes, you drive through this park. The first part is the Painted Desert and remains of a pueblo village used by Native Americans for six centuries. The road had many lookout points and short trails to take. I've seen the Painted Desert from the air when flying over it but it is nothing like seeing it in person. I can't describe how beautiful, other-worldly, and spiritual the scenery was. I'm a sucker for beauty. Everywhere we looked was more beautiful that the last.

The Native American ruins and petroglyphs were equally moving. It's hard to conceive of anyone living in these badlands (cue Bruce's song which ran through my head during the whole visit). The wind added to the desolated feel of the area. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was at least 45 miles per hour pretty steadily the whole time we were there. The gusts sometimes felt like they were going to blow me down. It was pretty exhausting being outside in the wind but very much worth it!

The drive through the park is 28 miles. It took a couple of hours (we stopped at every outlook) before we got to the petrified forest. The guidebook says that more than 200 million years ago trees clinging to eroding riverbanks fell into streams and were buried in floodplains. The trees were buried in sediment which contained silica and that silica replaced the wood until the logs were turned to stone. Erosion has exposed these logs. The vastness and number of logs over miles made it hard to believe that this wasn't just some movie set.

We stayed at the park until about 5:30pm and then hit the road for Flagstaff. On the way we stopped at Winslow, AZ. We couldn't resist finding the "corner" of Jackson Browne fame. What fun!

We are now in our hotel in Flagstaff and excited about tomorrow. We have three park visits planned before heading to Williams, AZ and the beginning of our Grand Canyon adventure. Life is good!