Painted Deserts and Petrified Forests

We decided to stop at the Root (Ouch!) 66 RV Park just to the west of The Petrified Forest.

Root (Ouch!) 66 RV park

. The price was $13.50 FHU Passport America, not many amenities, but it was somewhat close to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert area.

We had probably the best trip ever to these national parks. I have been there many times starting when I was a kid, but it always seemed to be unbearably hot (maybe that's because it was always in the dead of summer.) Today the colors were brighter

Painted Desert

, the weather beautiful and the whole trip most enjoyable. We didn't pull over at all the look outs, but many of them.

We particularly enjoyed the Puerto Pueblo

1200 years ago people lived at this pueb...

and the petroglyphs there

Petroglyphs at the pueblo

This is obviously where the stork legend began

, and I was amazed at the sophistication of some of these designs

See the little antelope on this one?

. Of course there were some modern petroglyphs as well

Newspaper rock is absolutely covered with these, but the picture does not bring them out. We had binoculars which really made it obvious.

Here you can see what is called the Agate Bridge

The agate bridge

and now we begin to see the Petrified Forest. Here you can almost see the woodchips and sawdust

You can almost see the woodchips and saw...

This one even looks like somebody's woodpile

. At the end of the road through the parks is a small museum where they have some of the dinosaur skeletons which have been dug up here

Here is the Petrified Log Lady (Remember Twin Peaks?)

Here of course Jeff cannot tell a lie

, he chopped down this tree with his little knife

After we finished our tour of the parks, we went back to Old Root 66 RV and had a great happy hour (which lasted about 3!) with our neighbors. Tommy and Nancy from Pennsylvania, Bob and Merlene from Michigan and Carol and Ed from Florida. We talked and laughed for hours.

Wild group at Root 66

May 10, 2007

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