As I have said before, each National Park has it’s own gifts and beauty. Such was the case today as I visited the Petrified Forests and Painted Desert. This was a historic trip through time and all that has evolved over the years. The temp was 50 but the wind was 23 mph! I did about 5 miles of hiking but the wind slowed me down a bit.
The beauty of the petrified wood is incredible. This land, during the dinosaur era, was a forest. Floods took down trees and left them. Over the years they became petrified – fossilized wood that forms when wood is buried in sediment and replaced by minerals over millions of years. The colors are beautiful!
The history that has been preserved over the years is incredible. There is a Newspaper Rock that has many pictographs similar to this one. The interpretation depends on consultation with members of the various tribes. There was also a rock formation that the first peoples depended on for the summer solstice.
This is a 1932 Studebacker standing where Route 66 cut through the park. As we know, Route 66 was one of the original highways that ran from the mid-west to CA.
At several points there were the remains of some of the Pueblo living establishments. While they may have been build with wood, the wood has petrified and create a beautiful wal structure;. At one of the ruins, one could make out the various rooms.
Off tomorrow for White Sands National Park. A little miscalculation of distance so I will be on the road a bit longer. This National Park was one of the most recent ones – established in 2019.
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