Driving Through the Desert Rocks

 U.S. Road Trip 2013

Part Four

The Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest National Park did not disappoint. We stopped here on a whim en route to the Grand Canyon. Our photos don't do justice to the array of color in this area of the desert, a tiny corner of two native American reservations. Every color of the rainbow seemed to be visible on the horizon.

 The Painted Desert Inn was stunning even at a distance. I was curious what the lobby looked like. Generally that's as far as I get to go in the lodges of our national parks.

Also remembered in this small national park is the role of historic Route 66 in bringing people from the midwest through the desert to California. I once wondered why anyone would choose such a drive, but now I see. I just have new questions: "how much water did they need to haul" and "how did they keep themselves from excessive sunburn?"

 Just south of Painted Desert NP is Petrified Forest NP. Throughout it archeologists have found evidence of people who lived her in small communities thousands of years ago. We spotted their petroglyphs and noticed the orderly layout of their town.

We took the brief walk around the logs trail near the Petrified Forest visitor center to learn about the natural history of this spot. Millions of years ago logs were swept downstream, covered and smothered in volcanic ash, and then slowly copied as one mineral after another replaced the living components of the logs. What we see there today are replicas of what was once alive.

 We were so thankful for the wind that day which cooled us on our brief time outside of the air conditioning of our car, and we were  so thankful again for the beauty of our natural parks.