Jill arrived by train on June 20th as the first leg of her trip to the ALA Convention in Las Vegas. I'm driving the two of us the rest of the way as a short vacation and time in Las Vegas. I've never been there so it will be new to me.
We left my house around 7 PM on Wednesday, June 25th and got as far as Gallup. The sun was in our eyes much of the whole way and it was tough driving. We were delayed getting away because I needed to go to the funeral visitation for my friend, Rod, who lived next door. Except for the sun the trip to Gallup was uneventful. It looks like there might be a few things to do there so I might go back sometime.
We headed out from Gallup fairly early. Our hotel had a light breakfast so we ate there and got on the road. We gained an hour as soon as we crossed over into Arizona, which has it's own time zone....ignoring daylight savings time. Today was the USA vs Germany World Cup soccer game...the last of the group stage games and we were hoping for a win or a draw to move forward to the next group of 16. Jill as able to follow the game with periodic updates on her phone. Our guys lost but still moved forward because the other teams did poorly.
Anyway, our first stop was Petrified Forest NP, which includes the Painted Desert. We followed the 29 mile drive through the park and made a bunch of stops and a few short hikes.
The route went through the Painted Desert first. We stopped and gawked at the various colors in the rocks and hiked along the rim of the mesa top. The park wasn't very busy -- it was still early.
We stopped at the Painted Desert Lodge, an old tourist stop that dates back to the 1920s. The building predates the park and the CCC workers renovated and redesigned the building into it's Pueblo Revival style. I like how these buildings are designed and saw some features I'd like to have on my house.
The building is a national historic landmark and it was operated as a concession by Fred Harvey and Harvey Girls at one time. The park has an artist in residence and there was an exhibit of photographs finished in postcard style. We talked to the ranger and had a nice visit.
The Petrified Forest included an Indian ruin at Rio Puerco. The ruin had a few structures excavated but most of it was left undisturbed, There once was a 100 room structure there build around a central plaza. It was inhabited from around 1215 and abandoned by 1380. At it's height about 200 people lived here.
The site is famous for some of its petroglyphs including one that serves as a calendar marker for the summer solstice. There are a lot of different designs.
We had a close encounter with a very colorful green lizard while walking through the ruin. He got a lot of attention and didn't seem to mind. We took pictures of him and then some German tourists took some picture. He might be famous.
The trees of the Petrified Forest were growing about 250 million years ago and were apparently flooded and mineralized. They are fossils of huge trees from a tropical forest that fell and were washed down a stream onto a large floodplain where they were later flooded. The mineralization took a long time.
Our last stop was the Meteor Crater west of Winslow. I was there when I was about 13 and it was just a rustic tourist stop without much development. Now it is very developed with a visitor center and viewing platforms...and a hefty admission fee.
We got to our motel in Flagstaff around 4 PM and relaxed a while before heading to Cracker Barrel for supper. We listened to a Cardinals/Dodgers game for a while before bed..
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