Petrified Forest National Park

Our next campground was just 15 miles from the Petrified Forest National Park.  Even though both of us have been there before, it was during a fast stop off I-40.  So today we got to take our time, spending the entire day in the park. We entered  the park from I-40, and that started us on the North side where the Painted Desert is. 

God painted the desert red in this northern section.  There are several other stops we made in this area, but obviously nothing picture-worthy for the blog.  Our next stop within the park would be Puerco Pueblo, where we saw the ancestral Puebloan homes.  We've seen a lot of those in our journey through New Mexico and Arizona, so we didn't even take a picture.  But the petroglyphs alongside the pueblos proved that these ancient peoples had a sense of humor.  Why else would they take the time to chisel a picture of a huge bird eating something (or someone)?

At the next stop we were entertained by a raven that obviously liked having his picture taken.  Here he was posing as a car ornament on a black car.  There are signs at all the parking lots not to feed the ravens, but they are weathered and hard to see.  We're pretty sure the ravens are responsible for defacing the signs.

The next area of the park includes Blue Mesa, and is definitely a must-see for anyone visiting this national park.  There's a one-mile paved trail that takes you directly into the canyon amongst these beautiful giant hills.

The purple hills with the blue skies and Mark makes for a very handsome picture.

Isn't it amazing that we have been at the Petrified Forest for hours, and there still hasn't been a picture of petrified wood taken?  As we drove further south in the park, we saw more and more petrified wood.  Denisa remembers coming to this national park when she was a child.  She was very disappointed that the petrified forest was lying in pieces on the ground rather than standing straight up.

Also showing up were beautiful  fields of wild flowers.  If you throw in a nice chunk of red petrified wood, Denisa will for sure put in on the blog.

The Petrified Forest has grown since the last time we visited.  In 2004, it grew by over 100% when additional land was acquired.  Additional "off-the-beaten-path" hikes have been added as well.  Knowing that we love to hike, we were all over that new opportunity.  So we started a hike at the Jasper Forest that took us onto a very nice path.

We especially like the red petrified logs.  We had forgotten how the process of petrification takes place, but we watched the film at the visitor's center for a refresher.  Basically, these logs were submerged in water, and then covered with silt and sediment in such a way that they did not decay.  But silica and other minerals replaced the cellulose in the trees, turning the wood into stone over many years.  In these trees, the minerals turned them into jasper--a beautiful red color.

We loved hiking off-trail, and found this huge log, with an Engelmann cactus growing on top.  Those Engelmanns are everywhere!

We hiked 2.6 miles off the beaten path, and we noticed that even the gravel that littered the ground was pieces of that jasper-colored petrified rock.  We commented that if we were any place else, seeing just one of these stones would have felt like the find of a life-time.  But here there are so many that they are as common as gravel.

Has Denisa pointed out the wildflowers were just beautiful here?  In all the flowers we have seen this spring, we don't remember seeing this particular flower.  It covered some hillsides, and even felt comfortable enough to grow in the sand.

After eating the picnic lunch we had packed, our next stop was the "Long Logs Trail."  This is a 1.6 mile hike that showcases some of the biggest logs in the national park.

Under this log, we found a collared lizard.  These guys have beautiful colors, but don't have the patience necessary to stand around for a really good picture.

  
 This was the longest intact log we found in this section of the park.  When we stepped it off, it was 150 feet long, and some of it was still buried.  This picture puts Mark on one end while Denisa takes the picture from the other end of the log just to show how long it was.  Since we are living in a 35 foot motorhome, I think this might be the farthest we have been from each other in the last four months.






People that rush through this national park will probably see only the group of petrified logs right behind the visitor's center.  We made that walk as well, and took this picture with "Old Faithful."  You can guess which one in the picture goes by that name.  It would be the one that is ten feet around at its base.

Besides petrified wood, this national park is also known for the many dinosaur bones that have been excavated here.  When we watched the movie at the visitor center, we had to giggle at the name of this dinosaur--obviously known for its toothy grin.  It is the "Smilosuchus gregorii" one of the most commonly found vertebrate fossils in the park.  You might notice that "Smilosuchus Markii" is posing appropriately with the dinosaur skeleton.

Again, we spent another 9-5 day really exploring another national park.  It was a full work day for us, but we did take a nice picnic lunch break, and then napped a while under a shade tree to relax a little in the middle of another grueling day of being retired.  We did hike around 7 miles between the different trails in the park.  It was a great day!  To finish up our day, we headed home through Holbrook, Arizona.  Another Route 66 town, its most famous road side attraction seems to be the Wigwam Motel.   You can still rent out your very own wigwam, and each has a classic car parked right outside.