Wednesday, May 11, 2016

May 11, 2016 Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park, Arizona

High 70’s and kind of hazy day.

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We hiked out to Martha’s Butte pictured on the right. Rock formation on the way.

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Martha’s Butte had a bunch rocks with petroglyphs.

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More of Martha’s Butte petroglyphs. I, of course, fell twice trying to climb up to more petroglyphs and road rashed my leg. John’s knee started to bother him. We drove to Crystal Forest, more petrified wood.

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A really long log at Crystal Forest and a  wide shot.

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Some of the crystals and cool colors in the Crystal Forest trees. A view from Blue Mesa.

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More cool views from Blue Mesa in the Petrified Forest. Many of the fossils were found in this area.

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The Teepee’s and part of Newspaper rock. You had to look at with spotting scopes because it was down in a canyon and it was closed to climbing. It has over 600 glyphs on it.

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Some of the petroglyphs from both stops, a kokopeli, a 4 handed person, this one to me looks like a stork with a baby, but the experts seem to think it is an ibis with a frog, and a cougar- it is about 3 feet long. It was escavated and moved to the museum. Puerco Pueblo was a 100 room , one story building around a big court yard.

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View of the painted desert.  Historic route 66 went right through this park back in the day.  A couple ravens in the parking lot and the bottom is a series of photos showing how the sunrise on the summer solstice sends a spear of light through two rocks down into the spiral. Kind of a calender  so the indians knew when to plant their crops.

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The historic Painted Desert Inn.  It was originally built out of petrified wood, then the park bought it and the CCC made it into this pueblo. Fred Harvey ran the concession and hired a native Hopi to paint these murals in the diningroom.  It is no longer an Inn, but a museum.

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Another view of the painted desert. My road rashed leg! Same one I twisted in Death Valley.

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