West Trip 2012: Day 28

Flagstaff, Arizona to Albuquerque, New Mexico

Petrified Forest National Park & Painted Desert, Arizona

342 miles, 7 ¾ hours

This morning we got on the road to head for Albuquerque, New Mexico. Today officially began our trek back eastward towards home. We have about 9 more days till we plan to arrive home, but it is still a little bit sad to be heading east! About 100 miles east of Flagstaff is the Petrified Forest National Park. We took 180 south to head to the southern entrance of the park, and then drove through the park northwards, till crossing I-40 and then looping up and around through the Painted Desert and getting back on the highway.

The Petrified Forest is not really much of a forest at all, in fact, there are no trees to be found. I think we were actually expecting to find some petrified trees still standing, but that is not the case! Instead, the trees (now actually stone) are scattered sparsely throughout sections of the park, and are broken up into several pieces except for just a few that are long logs still intact. We drove through the park, stopping at a few overlooks to see the petrified logs. Although I am glad we went, it was hardly the exciting location! Towards the northern end of the park there is a pull-out where you can view “Newspaper Rock” which is a site where lots of petroglyphs are carved into some rocks down below a shallow canyon. You can view the petroglyphs through binoculars that are provided, and they were pretty cool to see. Drawings of people, animals, the sun, and swirly shapes dominated the carvings. Further on, after crossing Rt. 40, into the Painted Desert, we stopped at a nice overlook and had lunch. You could see very far in many directions-in fact you could see the peaks overlooking Flagstaff back to the west. The placard said that the air right at that location in the Painted Desert was some of the cleanest air in the United States. I found that interesting, as we read a placard back at the Grand Canyon that said the air there was very hazy from pollution that settles over the canyon! Interesting contrast!

We continued on through the desert, Indian Reservations, and road-side tourist traps until finally reaching Albuquerque.

Our campsite is called Enchanted Trails-it is on Historic Rt. 66 (also right close to the highway), but we are set pretty far to the back of the campground. The prices for camping in New Mexico are super-cheap! Of course, the campgrounds in New Mexico are also pretty much dirt/gravel parking lots. There are a couple of trees, but not enough to do anything. It’s pretty sparse, but it fits with the landscape. Our campground has several older restored trailers up front for viewing and also for renting out for a night-as well as lots of Rt. 66 memorabilia in their office/store.

After getting set up, the kids took a swim in the pool and hot tub, and then we came back to have dinner-beef stew and biscuits for me and Dennis, and ravioli for the kids.

at the Petrified Forest, several logs lying around like this, except they are stone. most are broken up as this one is. also, most are not this big

Eric sitting on a piece of petrified wood

the colors are what are pretty. as the silica and other minerals seeped into the wood from the ash and mud, they crystallized and formed the pretty patterns and colors

The kids enjoyed working on a map that our friend, Genia, gave us to go along with the drive through the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert-so glad I didn't forget about it!

The petroglyphs at Newspaper rock. You should be able to click on the picture and zoom in-you can see some of them pretty well!

overlook for the painted desert-I have always wondered about this place since I used to listen to the 10,000 Maniacs song with the same title. Now I know-it just looks like God took a paintbrush to the sand dunes and made stripes of color across the landscape