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Painted Desert / Petrified Forest Photos
We began this day at the Day's Inn at the Grand Canyon. We had originally planned to spend some time at the Grand Canyon before heading south, but we were interested in spending a lot of time out at the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest region, so instead we just headed out. We headed south about an hour before turning east to get out to the northeastern corner of Arizona, where the National Park is which holds both the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert.This is a really pretty area. The painted desert is very lovely, with various shades of color built into the rock. Interestingly, though, I didn't find it nearly as pretty as some of the gorgeous terrain we had seen in Utah while driving from four corners to Monument Valley yesterday. I think I've been spoiled.
The petrified forest was more interesting. These are in essence tree fossils. It's not wood you're looking at - it's stone. The trees fell down and over time the wood was replaced with stone, just like when fossils are made. You're left with stone in the exact shape of the tree that was there.
I have to admit that I thought the forest would be "standing up" and you'd walk through it. Instead, all these trees had fallen over long ago. Many are still half buried in hillsides and only the ends are sticking out. It makes you think that millions of trees are still there under the sand, waiting to be discovered.
I found it VERY sad that many of the most beautiful areas here have been vandalized. Some of the prettiest trees had quartz and amethyst and other pretty stones in them. However, over the years vandals have chiselled out all of the pretty parts. So you're left with wooden tree-like objects full of gouges where the stones were removed. It's very depressing. But this park is SO large that unless they wanted to somehow build giant domes, there's no way to keep those trees safe from harm. People will find a way to drive in there at night and steal whatever they want to.
Once we got to the bottom of the drive, we turned around and drove north again to see the sunset over the desert. It was very nice! Then we raced as quickly as we could down to Phoenix to see my half sister who is going to school down there. We had to eat at Denny's because we got there so late! Then we drove another hour south so that we could be close to the Saguaro cactii in the morning, to spend the day there.
It was great to see my half sister, but I found the painted desert / petrified forest part of our overall trip to be one of the least interesting things we did. I adored Mesa Verde, I really loved the drive through Monument Valley, and the Saguaro were amazing. So in comparison this just didn't stand up :)
Still, it was very nice to see once, and it was worth seeing the rock-trees.
Painted Desert Petrified Forest Photo Slideshow Main Page
Four Corners Trip Main Page
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