We had a leisurely start this morning and headed out to the
Petrified Forest / Painted Desert National Parks. The Petrified Forest was the
first stop. During the Triassic Era, 225 Million years ago, Arizona was a
rainforest. As the rainforest trees died, they fell into rivers and were swept
downstream to form log jams. The trees sank to the bottom as the wood became
waterlogged and were buried by layers of sediment. The logs soaked up silica
from volcanic ash, which over time crystallized into quartz. Different minerals
created different colours, white, orange, brown, purple, pink, green and blue.
We did two walks, the Giant Logs walk and the Crystal Forest
walk. Now a dry grassland and desert, it is amazing to walk amongst tree
trunks, chunks and shards all made from quartz. The outer layers still look
like bark, but the inners are colourful crystals.
Route 66 also runs through
the park, and there is a rusted out 1932 Studebaker sitting on the old road.
The Painted Desert was quite a sight too. The sand and rocks
are bright reds and oranges. Very pretty to look at from the many overlooks on
the road.
Leaving the Parks we got back on the I40 headed for
Albuquerque again for the Balloon Fiesta. We heard about the Fiesta when we
arrived, and decided to back track to catch the last few days. The RV Park
required a minimum of 3 days booking, so we will check out the Fiesta and also
a few other things we missed the first time round.
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