Petrified Forest National Park

We decided yesterday Monday, to visit "The Petrified Forest" National Park on I-40 to West between Albuquerque and Flagstaff in Arizona Very bizarre looking, but beautiful formations everywhere in the park And almost to the end of the ride (25 Miles total) we saw all these petrified wood pieces From far away they looked like real trees A close up of one of the petrified trunks Petrified Forest National Park With one of the world's largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood, multi-hued badlands of the Painted Desert, historic structures, archeological sites, and displays of over 200-million-year-old fossils, this is a surprising land ... Read Full Story

Vivid bands of color on "teepee" shaped buttes. [click to enlarge] The Painted Desert in Arizona is a vivid display of colorful rock formations that stretch from the Grand Canyon State Park to just North of the Little Colorado River. This desert environment is surreal; especially with the clouds giving it a very "Salvador Dali like" feel. Much of this region is located within the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. The Navajo and the Hopi have lived here for approximately 1500 years. The Painted Desert was nick-named by a group of Spanish Explorers, headed by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who called it “el Desierto ... Read Full Story

Vivid bands of color on "teepee" shaped buttes. [click to enlarge] The Painted Desert in Arizona is a vivid display of colorful rock formations that stretch from the Grand Canyon State Park to just North of the Little Colorado River. This desert environment is surreal; especially with the clouds giving it a very "Salvador Dali like" feel. Much of this region is located within the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. The Navajo and the Hopi have lived here for approximately 1500 years. The Painted Desert was nick-named by a group of Spanish Explorers, headed by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who called it “el Desierto ... Read Full Story

Our master plan was to make it home to Texas by early evening. Another 900 miles remained from Holbrook. No problem.... We left the WigWam in the rea r view mirror and headed east. We couldn't drive across northern Arizona and not see either the Grand Canyon or The Petrified Forest / Painted Desert. We voted on the the latter since we had both seen the Grand Canyon before. Growing up in Arizona I had been there a bunch of times and had even hiked to the bottom and camped there once in high school. The Petrified Forest is only about 20 miles east ... Read Full Story

Today was beautiful as we woke up in Albuquerque, NM. After a decent continental breakfast, we set off for Interstate 40. We stopped off to fill up the car (at $3.13/gal.) and were treated to an amazing sight. There were approximately 20-30 hot air balloons taking off in the Albuquerque morning. Apparently, the still, cool weather in Albuquerque makes it a perfect launching spot for hot air balloons. The sky was filled with color and strips from the balloons. They were awesome to see. We planned on driving to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks. On I-40, we saw the gorgeous adobe ... Read Full Story