Friday, April 14, 2017

Arizona, Holbrook - Friday, April 14, 2017 - Petrified Forest and Painted Desert


We headed out early this morning for our second exploration of the Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert.  As I was reviewing information on the park last night I found out that this Saturday and Sunday are two of the “fee free” days for all national parks.  Next weekend will also be fee free, so get out and take advantage of a great bargain.  The park is about 20 miles from where we are staying until Sunday.

Before we got into the actual park we had to check out a museum and souvenir shop.  If you are in the market for a one-of-a-kind coffee table, you might be interested in this one made of a slab of polished petrified wood.  It will only set you back $12,500.  Since petrified wood weighs in at about 200 pounds per cubic foot you might have to reinforce the floor.



If you are interested in something smaller this polished piece is only $4,500.  These are undoubtedly beautiful, but I wonder how many of them actually sell.



The 28-mile road through the park offers several areas with pull offs for photo opportunities.  Two visitor centers and museums are also in the park offering lots of information.  We stopped at the museum in the Rainbow Forest area.



This area along with several of the other areas have well maintained trails where you can get a little closer to the petrified wood.  The wind today was brutal so I was surprised that most of the pictures I took turned out, it was hard to hold the camera steady.



Small colorful wildflowers are scattered among the petrified logs.






The logs near the Rainbow Forest area are the longest in the park.




I’m just amazed by the brilliant colors.  Today is a really sunny day, I’m sure the colors all look different on an overcast day.



Not many cacti are in this area, this one was showing off some beautiful flowers.



I wonder how many more years this formation will stand.  From this side it looks pretty sturdy.



I shot this one looking back at the formation, it looks pretty tenuous here.



The Crystal Forest area was once a part of a tropical forest.  217 million years ago this whole area was located near the equator.  It was part of a supercontinent which broke apart and the northern part of that supercontinent moved north becoming North America, this area became Arizona.




The 110 foot Agate Bridge is off limits now because the gully underneath it is gradually eroding and the bridge will eventually fall into the gully.  The concrete span underneath the log was a 1917 attempt to prolong the life of the bridge.  After this tree died it was washed into a river and quickly buried in the river sediment preventing decay.  Volcanic ash dissolved in groundwater provided silica which reacted with the log and turned it into quartz.  Over the years water eroded the area and the log was unearthed once again.  This is the same process that all of the trees went through that are now petrified.



There is our Jeep looking through one of the buildings that is undergoing reconstruction.



The Blue Mesa area is one of my favorites even though blue isn’t usually my favorite color.  See the petrified logs sitting on top of one of the formations in the center?



Closer look at the logs.



More shots of the beautiful Blue Mesa area.




This area is call the Tee Pees.  Red is prevalent here.



The road from the Petrified Forest continues on for 6 miles into the Painted Dessert.  Under today’s conditions red was the color of most of the area.  I told Greg if we lived in this area I would be out here several times during the year to see how the colors changed – sunset, sunrise, winter, overcast skies.  I could just here him thinking I would be coming by myself if I wanted to come back that many times.






Our wildlife picture of the day – one lonely grasshopper.


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