Today, rather than make our way back out to the Interstate to make our return back into Arizona, we took the backroads through some very unpopulated areas.
At one point we traveled for over an hour at 15MPH under the speed limit and didn't have one single car pass us or see one coming from the opposite direction. How often does that happen?
We arrived at our destination by 11:30AM and were happy to find only a few of the 15 FREE campsites here were occupied. There are 5 front row sites with picnic tables and 10 more spread around a field behind us. Both end sites of the front row were taken so we chose the one right in the middle and got setup.
Like we usually do every couple of weeks, we immediately gathered up all our dirty laundry, loaded it into ROVER, and headed into town.
Today that town would be Holbrook, AZ and is 17-miles north of our campsite. Also as usual the first order of business is to find some lunch. Today that would be Popeyes Chicken, we haven't had that one in a while.
Next we used the "divide and conquer" method to get all of our chores completed in a timely manner. Meaning I dropped Tricia at the laundromat while I drive all over town to find propane and gasoline, groceries and in today's case, a little sightseeing.
On the way through town to find the laundomat we passed by a Route 66 landmark. Yes, Route 66 passes right through Holbrook and serves as the main street of town.
Holbrook is home to one of the seven original Wigwam Motels built in the 1930s and 40s and most of them can still be found along Route 66, this one happens to be #6. Surprisingly these are not wigwam shaped at all, they are considered teepees.
Not all of the Wigwam Hotels were built along Route 66 however, for 26 years (1948-74) Wigwam Motel #4 stood in Orlando, FL. It was razed in 1974 and replaced with a Days Inn, shortly after the nearby Walt Disney World opened in 1971.
The original office/gift shop/restaurant/gas station.
Look closely, only the hood of this vehicle is a VW Bug, the rest is painted on.
I liked checking out the automobiles from the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
There was even an old Chevy tow truck to check out.
This chunk of petrified wood is nearly as large as the Beetle it sits next to.
If you are wondering, for right around $100 a night you can still sleep in a wigwam.
With our chores completed we headed back to the campsite.
Two hours later the entire front row was filled with trailers and fifth wheels.
By nightfall the area behind us would also be filled with campers.
The FREE campsite we are visiting is in the parking lot for the Crystal Forest Museum and Gift Shop, not to be confused with the Petrified Forest Museum and Gift Shop, located right across the street. Both businesses are owned by the same family, only the campsites across the street are $25 a night and come with electricity. We didn't spend all that money for solar equipment to be plugged in when unplugged is an option.
Apparently most of the other campers like the FREE price also, because while it is all filled here on our side of the street, there are only two big Class A motorhomes plugged in and paying $25 a night across the street.
WEDNESDAY - Today we are going to get our first look inside of Petrified Forest National Park.
Even though our campsite is a mere 50-yards from the South Entrance Gate of the park, we are going to drive back into Holbrook and then travel east on Interstate 40 to the North Entrance Gate. Both gates open at 8:00AM, but the weather forecast for today is calling for temperatures in the low 50°Fs, winds around 30MPH and rain beginning around noon.
For that reason we wanted to be at the north gate when they opened to be among the first visitors of the day to arrive at the Visitor Center, watch the movie and get my Passport Book stamped, before heading down the 28-mile Scenic Drive that winds it's way through the park and all the overlooks.
Over the next two days the weather is supposed to be more suitable for hiking, with no rain, more sun and slightly higher temperatures, so we'll save those activities until then.
OUR DRIVING TOUR OF
PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK
The north entrance of the National Park is where you'll find the Painted Desert Visitor Center.
Is was quickly obvious why they call this region The Painted Desert.
We just loved all the deep red and maroon colors of the rocks.
This is the front entrance to the Historic Painted Desert Inn.
Today it is a National Historic Landmark and houses a museum.
This is the back side of a concrete bench where Route 66 used to cross through the park.
Also you'll find the remains of this 1932 Studebaker from Route 66's heyday.
We are now south of I-40 on the park road where you'll find the Puerco Pueblo site.
After visiting the Chaco Culture site last week these didn't impress us as much as they should.
There were however some interesting petroglyphs to be found near the pueblo.
This one appears to be a giant ibis getting ready to swallow down a manlike figure.
This kiva is squarish while the ones at Chaco Culture were perfectly round.
This is what Newspaper Rock looks like with the naked eye.
Once you zoom in a little you start to see some of the 650 petroglyphs on this one rock.
Some of these petroglyphs date back over 2000 years.
It's quite a collection all in one place.
You'll notice some of the images are repeated over and over again.
The skies are getting darker, we better hurry up with this visit.
With the Painted Desert behind us the landscape took on a whole different look.
You can clearly see three or four different colored layers in the hillsides.
Some of the taller ones shows the pattern repeats.
Just as I was getting used to the darker stripes the color pallette changed again.
Now we're seeing lighter colors and we see our first petrified log.
This area is littered with broken pieces of petrified wood.
It looks like someone poured vanilla ice cream over these hills...
...and then it ran down into the valleys.
These photos are from an area known as The Blue Mesa.
Some levels of the rockface do have a slightly blueish hue to them.
I wonder just how many more pieces of petrified wood are buried beneath the sands.
We'll definitely be back to hike the mile long Blue Mesa Trail before we leave.
Hopefully over the next few days we'll have some up close hiking pictures to share.
THURSDAY - This afternoon Tricia is going to hike the 2.6 mile "Long Logs and Agate House Trail" while I wait in the parking lot for her return.
Petrified Forest National Park has the largest concentration of petrified wood in the entire world. Most of the examples found along this trail are of the "rainbow" variety which is caused by the different minerals that were absorbed from the water during the petrifing process.
LONG LOGS AND AGATE HOUSE TRAIL
The trail starts out following the path of this "no longer used" roadway.
Then it turns into a gravel walkway that's easy to follow.
It's not too long before you start seeing the trails namesake, Long Logs.
These petrified logs are now muticolored stone.
It some places the path weaves it's way around these larger deposits.
This field contains some of the longest logs found in the park.
This photo shows the Rainbow Forest Museum in the background.
The logs found here are not only long, they're tall too.
This one measures approximately five feet across.
These look to me like chocholate covered mountains. I must be hungry!
Here the path appears to be just as old as the logs.
This one really shows off that highly prized rainbow colors.
Looks like Tricia is aware that she's running out of time to finish her hike.
The Agate House has been partially reconstructed by the NPS.
They sure did use a lot of pretty building blocks for their project.
Look at all those rainbow blocks.
A peek through one of the "viewing windows". The only entrance was through the roof.
Time to hurry back home before the rain starts!
FRIDAY - We'll both be out on the trails this afternoon. We are going to check out three trails here in the park.
We ate an early lunch and headed out for the park just before noon. While I was outside warming up the truck, it was 45°F out, it began to snow/sleet/rain. Looking westerly the skies were nothing but a continuous white from the clouds all the way to the ground.
We headed out anyways and just 2-miles into the park there was no more precipitation. We drove another 13-miles farther east into the park to hopefully get ahead of the rain and sneak in at least one hike.
The first hike for today is the 1-mile long Blue Mesa Trail that we're both looking forward to. We saw this one from the mesa's rim when we were driving through the park on Wednesday.
BLUE MESA TRAIL
We started high up on the rim of the mesa before decending down 100+ feet to the valley floor.
In this photo you can barely see the few people hiking on the trail.
All right! Let's started heading down into the valley below.
Don't forget, "What's goes down, must come up". Or something like that!
An up close look at the blueish colored badlands that surround us.
Thankfully, once at the bottom the trail remains fairly flat.
While this photo may not be striking, it is striping!
I hope that RV doesn't drive too close to the edge, it's a long way down.
On the valley floor there were bits and pieces of petrified wood scattered about.
More blue, purple and grey striping. Isn't it striking?
We're at the halfway point here, time to head back.
Come on down! It's much nicer down here out of the wind.
Here's a piece of petrified wood balancing on a sandstone pedestal.
I'm seeing it close to time to start our upwards trek.
Time to put my head down and get to work.
Look what I found at the top of the first rise.
A seat with a magnificent view!
That was a long way I just climbed to get to this seat.
Looks like we finished just in time, the storm has caught back up to us.
With the storm on top of us we headed back to THE POD to wait out the weather. A couple of hours later we headed right back into the park to hike our other two trails.
The next trail we're hiking is the ¾-mile Crystal Forest Trail. Thankfully this trail is relatively flat compared to the last one we did. It's known for all the "colorful" petrified wood found in the park.
CRYSTAL FOREST TRAIL
Glad to see there are no steep climbs on this trail.
This is what happens when the wood doesn't petrify all the way through. The center rots away!
I'm starting to see some of those rainbow colors we heard about.
That's more like it!
There are also some rather long logs along this trail.
This is the result when the sand washes out from underneath the stone logs.
This one was nearly entirely white. I think that may be quartz crystal in the log.
Look at the size of that one coming up on the trail.
The closer we get the bigger it looks.
That was one long log wasn't it?
What's that I see up ahead? My favorite kind of stone, a stone bench.
This one looks like people have been chipping of souvenirs. But that's not allowed!
Here's another big one! How big is it? I'm glad you asked.
Tricia says, "It's 4'8" tall, almost as big as me".
This one you can still see the growth rings in it.
Now that one's pretty colorful.
We're starting to see why this is called the Crystal Forest Trail.
Our last hike in the park will be the shortest one for today at only ½-mile long. It starts just behind the southern entrance's Visitor Center. It's called the Giant Logs Trail, I can't wait to see this one.
GIANT LOGS TRAIL
These first four photos were taken in front of the Visitor Center before starting down the trail.
They are displayed there for those who are unable to make it out on the trails.
They're meant to be examples of what you might find throughout the park.
This one is on the trail. Again you can see it defintely was a tree at one time.
This flat area was once the bottom on an ancient riverbed.
These are starting to live up to the title of Giant Logs.
This one has been called "Old Faithful" since the late 1920's.
It measures 35-feet long and weighs approximately 44-tons.
They are currently replacing the old pathways to make them wheelchair accessible.
That's different! A giant log with a knothole in the side.
I running out of (not so) clever captions.
Just in time because there are only three more photos to share.
Erosion has allowed this long log to be cracked under the weight of the topsoil.
That's it! This is the last photo we took while visiting Petrified Forest National Park.
Unlike White Sands National Park, where we were very underwhelmed by our visit, Petrified Forest National Park left us feeling very overwhelmed by all there is to see and do here.
We originally thought that the park deserved a one or two day visit, we're so glad we were able to spend four days just outside of this wonderful National Park.
ON A SIDE NOTE: While speaking to a NPS employee I learned there are plans to open a very small primitive campground in the northern end of the park near the Painted Desert Inn. The campground will feature wonderful views of the Painted Desert from the Chinde Point Overlook and offer a dump station.
No opening date is set yet, but if you're planning a visit it's something to consider.
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