Petrified.......

7:31 am - Sunday - February 3rd - Winslow, AZ - 46º F, 70% humidity, wind 19 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy today with winds in the 25-35 mph range later, and a forecast high of 58º F.....Super Bowl 53 is today!

Before I get into Saturday's adventures I would like to note that on February 1st of this year we completed 7 years living on the road in our 1982 Newell Classic.  It feels like the years are rolling by at a rapid rate, but when we think back on everywhere we have been, and all that we have done 7 years does not seem long enough to contain all that we have done, experienced, and seen.  The adventure continues with no apparent end in sight.  We love our life, and are grateful you have chosen to share it with us!  Now, onto regularly scheduled programming!

We postponed our trip back in time to the Petrified Forest until Saturday.  We were seeing forecasts of possible rain, and high winds for Saturday, but as it turned out it was a beautiful, blustery day with amazing cloud formations being swept across the expansive horizon.  It was about a 45 minute drive back to the north entrance to the Petrified Forest National Park (includes a big portion of the Painted Desert which we were able to see the first time we were there about 8 days prior)......

......using our National Parks Golden Age pass we entered the park cost free, and made our way northward inititally through the Painted Desert portion of the park......

 Painted Desert

......there are number of informational signs which I will post before we get into the pictures of the rest of the park.....

 Painted Desert informational sign

.....the Painted Desert covers over 1700 square miles (120 miles long by 60 miles wide), and a large chunk of it is with the boundaries of the Petrified Forest NP......

 Painted Desert Inn.....a Fred Harvey operation....served their last meal in 1963

 
.......from the Painted Desert Inn we continued along the park road eventually turning south, and crossing over I-40 to the Petrified Forest portion of the park.....

.....at first the samples of petrified wood are few and far in between, but as you progress southward you begin to find more and more.......

 Crystal Forest

.....eventually we stopped at the 'Crystal Forest' part of the park where petrified wood, and logs are found in abundance......the loop trail here is about .75 long and well worth the time.....this is probably the greatest concentration of petrified logs we found on this day......a very interesting walk......

.......there were several areas where we were able to view numerous petroglyphs........the loop trail is about .5 miles long, and a very easy walk.....

 Petroglyphs

Newspaper Rock

 
.....another stop we made was at 'Blue Mesa' which provided a 1 mile (loop) walking path.  We were able to view the stratification of the area.......

 Blue Mesa

 Some hoodoos

......we thoroughly enjoyed this 1 mile loop trail, which took us about 45 minutes to traverse (we stopped often to take pictures), and highly recommend this walk.....

 A little perspective on how large this tree was

......the park road which takes you from north to south (or south to north if you wish to enter at the South Entrance) is about 28 miles in length.  We finally reached the South Entrance around 2:30 pm and took time to visit the park store, as well as the museum.....it was here we found the largest example of a petrified tree (above)......

 Agate Bridge

This was a long one!

......by 3 pm we were on our way back to Winslow after a delightful day of sightseeing.  We have passed by this National Park numerous times over the years, and I am embarrassed to say it took us this long to visit it formally.  The wonderful, windblown cloud formations added enormously to our experience.  We spent about 4 hours in the park, but I could see spending 8 hours, or more there with perfect weather conditions.  The wind lowered the 'feel' of the temperature (high of 59º F Saturday) to about 45º F, so we remained bundled up most of our visit (gloves, watch caps, long pants, gloves).

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'My cup runneth over......'

6:46 am - Saturday - January 26th - Sun Valley, AZ - 18º F, 84% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south by southwest....clear skies today with a forecast high of 51º F.  Ironically, in Flagstaff which is 2,000' higher in elevation it is 30º F this morning!

As Friday morning wore on more and more pictures began to appear on social media as family members began to arrive at the hospital to welcome Crosby Mark into the world....

Back row, right to left: Tim (father), Cynthia (grand daughter), Jennifer (Laila's mother), Rochelle (daughter-in-law), Chris (son) Front row, right to left: Crosby, Laila, Cathy (Laila's grand mother), Alexis (cousin of Laila)

 The happy, but exhausted parents and Crosby

......'My cup runneth over....'

We planned to roll our wheels a little later in the morning so we would not arrive at our destination too early in the day.  The Jello plan was for us to roll our wheels out of the Route 66 Casino RV Resort around 10 am, and then 'pay the rent' at the Route 66 Fuel Station at the entrance to the property.  Their CASH price for diesel was $2.71, and that is about the best we can expect for a while.  We took on just shy of 111 gallons for $300, and that will probably be the last time we fill up for a while as we are within 100 miles of our destination....Flagstaff.

We were merging back on I-40 around 10:30 am with clear blue skies from horizon to horizon, and no wind whatsoever......

......the driving was easy, and traffic was light.  We began gaining elevation almost immediately and eventually found ourselves crossing the Continental Divide for the last time in along time at just under 7,300'......

.....of course with the elevation gain we began to see snow on the ground, and I had to turn on our chassis heater to keep us warm.....

.....between us and our destination was the Petrified Forest National Park, emphasis on 'National'.   We had passed by this National Park several times over the years always telling ourselves we would stop 'next time'.  Well 'next time' was Friday.  Regretfully, the park was closed, except for the Visitors Center, due to the Federal government being shut down.  Nevertheless, we decided to stop and check out the Visitors Center, see the ubiquitous movie that is always offered at most National Parks, and then take a short 2.5 mile hike to the Painted Desert vista point.....

....the vista point was spectacular, and I wish we had been able to drive into, and through the park, but alas that will have to be 'next time'......

 Click on this pano to enlarge.....

 Hopi House

.....we arrived at the Visitors Center around 1:30 pm and did not leave until almost 3:30....our 2.5 mile round trip hike took us about an hour of that time.  We were only 17 miles east of our destination for the day, a Passport America park in Sun Valley, AZ (just east of Holbrook, AZ)......

......we chose site #2 which faces away from the Interstate and gave us a great, unobstructed view of the giant horizon....after I finished setting up for the night I sat down and just stared at the view......nothing like the high desert near sundown......

Old sign on premises...you can just make out the words....'GAS Sold Here'.....very cool!

.....my medical appointments in Flagstaff are on the 29th and 30th, so we will continue on to Winslow, AZ Saturday where we will hang out at lower elevations for a few days before heading up to frigid Flagstaff (4,300' elevation versus 7,200' elevation).

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defer the costs of producing this blog each day.