Phoenix, Day 2, Mon 20th - Petrified Forest & Winslow

Monday, February 20th, we once again had to adjust our plans. We are nothing if not flexible. You see, the weather forecast was something I had been watching for weeks. For a long time the entire week looked great. Then, about a week before our trip the weather was a little iffy for our Wednesday and Thursday adventures. We were to check out of our hotel in Phoenix on Wednesday morning. The day was to be driving to the Petrified Forest National Park.  After the park, we were going to Flagstaff where we had hotel reservations for the next two nights. Thursday was a 90-minute helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. By Sunday, the weather forecast was for a big snowfall in northern Arizona starting Tuesday evening and going through Thursday, right where we planned to be. We decided to cancel the helicopter and the hotel, extend our stay in Phoenix and find alternative activities. We had no desire to drive a rental car on snow covered roads or fly in the snow in a helicopter. Monday morning was spent making these changes. 

We left our hotel for the day and started by getting breakfast at Circle K. Then we started our 3 1/2 hour drive to Petrified Forest. This was a beautiful day and we wanted to be sure we at least saw this much of the northern part of our trip. Our drive would take us through Tonto National Forest and Sitgreaves Forest. We stopped in Payson at a Burger King for lunch not knowing what food opportunities might lay ahead.

This is my way of having sunglasses and still using my readers to watch Google Maps.

These are 'through the windows of the car' pictures of our drive through Tonto National Forest.

We continued through Sitgreaves National Forest. We saw snow on the ground as we approached this forest but this was the place where we saw the deepest snow. We also became keenly aware of a very long line of cars coming our way. We wondered if there was something they knew that we didn't know but really should know. After a distance, we saw lights flashing and an oversized load truck on the side of the road. Now we understood the long line of cars had been behind this oversized load. He pulled over to let them pass before heading further into the forest. 

Once out of the forests, we had open plains pretty much till we got to the Petrified Forest.

After our 3 1/2 hour drive with a stop for lunch, we made it to this day's destination, the Petrified Forest. We went to the Visitor's Center first and got the map of the drive through the park. Then back to the gift shop for a few petrified souvenirs: pendant for me, an ornament for the Christmas tree and a chunk of petrified wood for Claude. You are definitely not allowed to take petrified wood from the park. However, there is still lots to be found on private land in the area. This is what is sold in the shops. 

As good fortune would have it, the Painted Desert is right at the top of the northern part of the park road. The park road is 28 miles from the north entrance to the south entrance. We started at the north entrance. We would not stop at all the pull-outs but we did stop at most of them. We had two hours until the park closed. Some of the pull-outs have trails you walk that can be as long as 2-miles round trip. If we had the time, we would have walked these trails. 

Our first couple of pull-outs were views of the painted desert. It was lovely. 

We drove past the Painted Desert Inn. This is a National Historic Landmark. It has been turned into a museum. We did not go in the Inn/Museum due to time constrains. 

The park road looped to the left and went back down the ridge we had been on but the pull-outs were for this side of the ridge. They are Nizhoni Point, Whipple Point, and Lacey Point. Stunning.

Even the birds enjoyed the view.

The old Route 66 ran right thru Petrified Forest National Park. To commemorate that, the park as put a 1932 Studebaker where Route 66 cut through the park. This was a fun pull-out. I knew right away I wanted Claude to pose for a picture like he was driving that car. As I got the picture, the next family arrived. The man said to his wife, "That's a great idea. You go around and get a picture of me driving the car." I just smiled. It is nice to share ideas.

We had a bit of open ground to drive through to our next pull-out Puerco Pueblo. It is the foundation of an ancestral puebloan home. The Puerco River runs through this area.

Newspaper Rock was our next pull-out. It overlooks 650 petroglyphs. Some of these are as old as 2000 years. There was a park ranger at this stop and he pointed out two you could see from the scenic view area. I zoomed in with my trusty Canon camera and was able to get both. The native American's painted on what is called Desert Varnish. This is where microbes are on the rocks and they form a dark surface on the face of the rock. It makes a nice chalkboard-like place to put your petroglyphs. The first picture is of the area. The second picture is a petroglyph that looks like the Target store emblem. The third picture is a petroglyph of Kokopelli. This is the stick figure-like drawing you see a lot. Look for black surfaces and then you can find the petroglyphs.

The drive to our next pull-out yielded some interesting landscape. The colors in the layers on the mountains show different kinds of rock and periods of time. You can tell by the clouds that weather was on its way. 

Agate Bridge was a quick pull-out. It had the entrance that fit the people that lived in this area. The Agate Bridge is a petrified log that spans a gully. It is 110 ft long. It is supported underneath by a concrete bridge so it doesn't just fall away. 

We also pulled out at Jasper Forest. It offers a panoramic view of an area with a high concentration of petrified wood. 

Then we visited Crystal Forest. There are many petrified longs here that glimmer with quartz crystals. The trail here is 3/4 of a mile. We did not walk all of it. We were amused when we looked at our pictures of the one with us standing beside each other taking our own pictures. It is a shadow selfie of us enjoying our vacation!

Our final stop would be at the south entrance to the park. It was the Giant Log Trail. The museum at this end was closing and we only walked the trail. 

When we purchased our petrified wood souvenirs, we were given a sheet that explains the different colors in the rocks. This is that sheet. Good explanations.

It was now time to find our way back to our hotel in Phoenix. We decided to take a different drive back to Phoenix. We realized Winslow, Arizona was a little further out of the way. I said to Claude it would be great to get a picture of Claude "standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona". That was it. We both looked at each other and knew we would take this route home. We are huge Eagles fans. "Taking it Easy" is a favorite song of theirs. A cashier further confirmed this was a good move when she suggested a drive back through the forests had a higher probability of a deer running into the road. Not so much on the Interstate. We were off to Winslow, Arizona for a photo op before the sun went down.

I posted these pictures on Facebook of this wonderful attraction with this thought:

Standing on a Corner

In Winslow, Arizona

He's such a fine sight to see.

This is taking a little license from the actual words of the song, but it fits me and my Big Guy.

After the pictures, we had a nice dinner at the Brown Mug Café. Claude had a Navajo taco. It is made on their sopapilla. Navajo tacos are a big thing out west. I opted for a cheese enchilada and an order of sopapillas. I love sopapillas. 

Okay, we did go in the store and we did buy t-shirts. Claude wore his when we got home. 

On to Flagstaff then back to Phoenix. I-17 South was awful. We felt they must be like Michigan roads, two seasons, winter and road repair. Only, they weren't trying to repair this road. We noted the signs over the freeway warning of major storm weather Wednesday and Thursday. We knew we made the correct decision to change our plans. We had a great day and filled it well.