Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

---

Woke up to a very chilly morning, low 30’s, but it warmed up very quickly. The sun made the hillside in front of the van a beautiful gold color. We walked this morning, we have both put on about 10 pounds in the last 5 weeks and want to reverse that as soon as possible.

Well we are heading east and really not stopping after today until we reach Tennessee. Today’s destination - Petrified Forest. As we travel along Route 40 there is not much to see, but trains. We saw train after train, some that seem miles long, a lot of them were carrying truck trailers. We got off the highway and were on scenic old Route 66. We got coffee and washed the dust of the west off the van, maybe for the last time this trip.

As we entered into Petrified National Park’s south entrance, we saw elk. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and saw “Old Faithful”, there is a 35 foot section of this petrified log and it weighs over 44 tons. Petrified wood is a wood that has turned to a beautifully colored stone. There is a polished slice of a stone in the center that is stunning. We saw the ruins of an ancient pueblo that housed about 120 people and lots of petroglyphs on the rocks here and at Newspaper Rock. After crossing under Route 40 in the park, we were pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful Painted Desert. The colors were amazing.

We then continued east and we were soon in New Mexico. We lost an hour when we crossed the border. We stopped in Gallup for lunch, groceries, gas and wine. We continued on through Albuquerque and found a Passport America campsite at Hidden Valley in Tijeras, NM were we settled into a nice private tent site for the night. We got the site for ½ off and paid only $6.24 - what a bargain!

---

Photos

Old Faithful petrified tree
This 35 foot section weighs more than 44 tons

Hundreds of Petroglyphs
These symbol tell a story about ancient indian life