Sunday, Day 8, May 20, 2012

Good evening from the Best Western Pony Soldier Inn & Suite in Flagstaff, Arizona. Well Jamie first things first. I could not get on the internet so I got one of the desk ladies to help and guess what -- that litte button was turned off again. I am going to look at gluing that guy in the on position. I wanted to show you all the big rock formation that start showing up as you near New Mexico.

View from New Mexico Rest Area

Woke up at 4:00 AM and got up at 5 AM. Breakfast at 6:00 AM and headed for the Petrified Forest at 7 AM. Temperature was 44 degree so the car heater  promptly turned on. The day started off on kind of a downeer because the main visiters center is closed on Sunday but another one was open. As you enter the park you enter the Painted Desert first and from here on in this posting I am at a complete loss for word to describe both the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. I am happy to report that I applied sunscreen a couple of times and wore my straw hat all day. I estimate that I walked roughly 6 miles so I am one  tired puppy tonight. Had cat fish at Cracker Barrel very good. I think I took about 300 photos today so the camera battery needs some serious charging tonight. I obviously can't include all of them so I will struggle to pick out a few when I get back to your place we can look at options.

Park Entrance

At the park entrance there is a Park Ranger who checked by Permanent National Park pass along with a photo ID. He gave me some literature passed on a few vital items like stay on the paths and don't even think of leaving the park even with the smallest article. The Painted Desert and accomping Wilderness area are large but the viewing area is not terrible large. They have it laid out nicely. You drive from the entry point to the exit which is also the entry point to the Petrified Forest. 9 viewing points. Each viewing point has a name. You park in the visitor area which generally just a short walk to the point where you can see area. Finished you move on to the next viewing area. This often lets you see the area you just looked at but from a different angel. To my eternal gratitude there were several rest room facilities. The road that takes you through both parks is 28 miles long and the walking trails total about 6 miles.

It is interesting that from the different viewing areas in the Painted Desert you can see hundreds if not thousands of perrified logs but you can't get near them I can't accurately say but you are several hundred feet above what you are looking at and in many cases hundreds of yards away.

Looking Down into Painted Desert

Look at Different Colors

Different Colors and Formations

Large Logs In Painted Desert

Layers of Different Colors

As I stood and looked at the site in front of my eyes I was overwhelmed by the majesty of it all. As I looked at it from different angels I could not help but thank God for His wonderful works. I talked to several people and I told them that you can argue about the ages of our world and how many years ago certain things lived and died but one thing you can't argue about is that God put in motion the powers of nature ( wind, water, and freezing and thawing ) that created such beauty as is on display here. I only wish I could see this area after a rain. I think the colors would be so bright they would be beyond comprehension. When you look at many of the cone shaped hills many have a layer of rock on top. Then there are layers of different colored materials. The park people say the white layers are sandstone. The top color is dark and is caused by a high carbon. Darker reds are iron-stained silstone. The reddish bases are stained by iron oxide, which is also called hematite.

When you complete the last viewing station in the Painted Forest the road leads you to the Pertified Forest. There are eight major viewing points. A few are simply driving up to a point and walking a few steps to look. Others require a lot of walking along a path parts of which are steep. A couple of interesting items. At one lookout point there was a crow sitting on a post. You know if things in the park did'nt run off I took a picture. So I started to approach the crow. He just sat there cawing and looking at me. I got within 4 or 5 feet of him so I decided he was so use to people being around and propably giving him scraps. In talking to the other people there they had earlieer witnessed this crow sitting on top of a persons car and when they came to get in the car Mr. Crow decided he wanted in as well. There is one viewiing point called the Newspaper Rock. It has a lot of petroglyphs drawn on large bolders. In the valley below are many sections of a very large tree which seems out of placed but upon looking up at the side of the hill there is a large section of a tree sticking out over the valley. My guess is that over time what ever was supporting this tree washed out from under it and down it came.

Bad Photo But The Crow

The Puerrco Pueblo is a partially stabilized 100 room pueblo built about 1250 and may have housed as many as 200 people. A part of this area has

has many petroglyphs.

Just a Few of The Petroglyphs

The Agate Bridge is a lery long petrified log that once spanned a gully. Over time the Park Servive built different supports under it to keep it from colasping. They now have the log resting entirely on a concrete base. Still an impresive site.

Agate Bridge

The following are a few of the thousands of logs and a cross section of a log. I can't help but wonder how many thousands of logs are still burried under the dirt etc.

Sections of logs. Why broken as This ??

Cross Section of Petrified Log

There are so many more things I would like to say but I guess they will have to wait until another time. Good night and the Lord willing I will see you tomorrow night from the Grand Canyon.