The Petrified Forest

As I headed back to ABQ, I stopped at Holbrooke, AZ, another Route 66 town.  Aren't these wigwams awesome?!  You can actually stay in one overnight. 

Further down the road I found these prehistoric creatures.

As you all may have heard in the news, an area in the southeastern part of Arizona is on fire.  This picture was shot just outside Holbrooke, approximately 90 miles from the fire.  In the remainder of the pictures where you see what looks like low clouds, it is actually smoke from the fire.

One to do item on my bucket list for this trip was the Petrified Forest.  I was not disappointed.  There was so much to see, I spent the whole afternoon there.  Before I traveled the route in the forest, I stopped at the museum and gift shop; I wanted to buy the whole store.  I don't know what it is about rocks that I love, but the museum had awesome specimens.  Since you are not allowed to pick up and take rocks or other items from the forest, I did buy a small bag of petrified wood at the museum. 

Bench outside the museum.

 Cacti growing out of wood?

Tepee with petrified wood steps leading to the door.

Plume cloud again from the museum.

Note the huge black bird on the sign.  These birds were everywhere my entire visit and didn't seem to be afraid of anything.

The first stop was one of the visitor's centers.  The landscape was pretty barren, with petrified trees thrown in for color.  I could not get over the colors.  I was also surprised to find flowers and a cactus.

Next stop was the Crystal Forest.

 Even though the picture is of poor quality, this shows what it might have looked like in the Triassic Age...

 and this is what it looks like now.  Wow, huh?

I took this picture because I was able to capture the moon (it shows up waaay at the top of the photo barely visible).  I thought this picture looked cool with the moon and the landscape which looks almost moon-like. 

This is an agate bridge.  The bridge is a natural bridge consisting of natural rock on either side and a log of petrified wood across the rocks creating the bridge.  You will note the concrete below the petrified log in the second picture; this was added by the Forest Service to support the bridge.  Visitors are not allowed to walk on the bridge.  Also, note the plume of smoke in the background.

 These pictures are of what they call "blue mesas."

These are called tepees.  They do resemble tepees, don't they?

The Newspaper Rock was the most interesting stop along the way.  The rocks along this stretch consisted of primitive drawings made by the Native Americans.  The Forest Ranger said this area was known as the "art gallery" as there are so many drawings.

Puerco Pueblo also contained drawings made by the Native Americans.  At first I couldn't find the drawings, but then I ran into a woman from St. Louis, MO, who took me back to the drawings and pointed them out.  They were right under my nose; I was looking across the way like I did at Newspaper Rock.

Remember the ruins from yesterday? More, but different tribe.

Also, remember the round Kiva (ceremonial area) from yesterday?  Here's a square Kiva.

A lake in the desert is very different than a lake in the midwest...they're all dried up here!  The whole time while driving in Arizona I looked down expecting to see the river or "wash" as they call them here to see the water...and nothing but dried up desert.

I was so excited when I shot the following picture.  I finally caught a couple tumbleweeds not blowing across the road!  I know, they're just dried up bushes, but still.

This next photo takes a little bit of imagination.  See the old telephone poles?  They mark the old Route 66.  Interstate 40 runs parallel to the telephone poles.  Don't know the story on the old car, but perhaps it's a Route 66 fixture also.

This was the highlight of my day....ladies and gentlemen...the Painted Desert.  I know, freakin' awesome, huh?!  Almost looks as cool as the Grand Canyon.  I was driving along and literally came around a curve in the road and voila, there it was in all its grandeur.

These are badlands.  The Native Americans originally called them badlands (they had a fancy word that I can't recall right now) and the materials that make up these hills are so unstable that they could totally transform a landscape after a rain or other storm.

After I left the Petrified Forest, I followed Route 66 into Gallup, NM.  Route 66 runs parallel with Interstate 40, but is a much slower pace and I was able to stop along the road and take photos of huge stone cliffs.  One stop I made was an old Native American trading post.  Further down the road I saw the last picture.  I didn't realize what I had until after I had downloaded it from my camera.  If you look real hard, you can see tepees on top of the lower hanging cliff.

I stopped for the night in Gallup, NM.  The weather is gorgeous here, no haze from the smoke traveling from the fire in eastern Arizona.  I was listening to the radio during my trip today and it was a little disconcerting to hear the evacuations of the towns surrounding the fires, even though I was miles away from the action.  It was reported that the fire is now larger than the City of Phoenix.