We are all cranky today. None of us want to be here, or in the RV, or together. I think part of is just timing…we left Truckee 2 weeks ago and have a really great 2 weeks and I think today we are all just tired. Tired of visitor centers. Tired of learning. Tired of moving. Tired of just about everything. The real kicker was that when we woke up it was 16 degrees outside. That’s right, in Arizona, it’s 16 degrees. Not only was it cold, but it was very windy.
Petrified Forest National Park. 24th National Park.
Petrified Forest National Park runs right through interstate 40 and has a north and south part of the park. Unfortunately, they are doing construction on 1 mile of road connecting the two. The painted desert (badlands) are in the north and the petrified trees are in the south.
Petrified Wood. What is it? How is it formed? Petrified wood is the fossilized remains of a tree. The wood is transitioned to stone through a mineralization process.
Basically if a tree is buried quickly under enough sediment where oxygen and decomposing bacteria and fungi cannot works it’s ‘magic’ to decompose the tree it has a chance to become fossilized. The organic material in the wood is replaced by minerals found in the groundwater, mainly silica (like quartz). Amazingly it retains the same structure as the the original wood. Elements such as iron, carbon, and manganese gives the stone a beautiful array of colors.
One exciting thing about the day…Petrified Forest National Park is dog friendly…and even has a Bark Ranger program.
We were at the north entrance do we did the north loop. We visited the historical Painted Desert Inn built back in the 1920s.
The Salt Lake Mural. It tells the story of two young Hopi men on a salt gathering journey. They walked 230 miles from their home to the Zuni salt flats and returned home. It was both a physical and coming-of-age journey. Fred Kabotie painted this and other murals back in 1948.
Historical Route 66 also runs through the park and is one of the only places that it is still protected. We actually ended up camping on old Route 66 last night.
Newspaper Rock
We did the 1 mile Blue Mesa loop.
Petrified wood is found all over the world however the largest concentration in one area is located in petrified Forest national Park. Of course the area that contains large groupings of wood is in the southern part of the park which we cannot access unless we detour all the way around the park. We did decide to drive the down because the petrified wood down there is supposedly much more colorful. It was only another mile walk loop, and was worth the drive and effort, but it was so incredibly freezing.
More driving and drive 2 hours up to Canyon de Chelle. Everyone, still cranky as we’re heading to bed.