2012/06 Western USA trip - Petrified Forest |
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We were off in mid-afternoon towards our next park, the Petrified Forest, but it has no campground, as they’re worried (justifiably) that campers will take off with all the rocks. We had to pass the park by and go twenty miles along the freeway to Holbrook, famous in its day as one of the towns on Route 66, the historic highway that connected Chicago to Los Angeles. The campground there advertised itself as the place for “big rigs”, the monster motorhomes and trailers that don’t fit into normal campgrounds. The place had all the appeal of an army base, but everything (Wi-Fi, electrics, laundry, showers) worked perfectly. We’d arrived late in the evening. The ladies were at the laundry and I had just started cooking when we ran out of propane. Both tank valves had been left on so we were really out. I never expected to get the tanks filled at 10pm but it was only 9pm in that part of Arizona! We ate dinner late, but at least it had been cooked!
Saturday June 16th
The Wi-Fi was good enough for us to Skype Graeme on his birthday. Of course he was as shy as usual and soon disappeared behind the sofa, but it was nice to talk with Karen. On our way out, we stopped at the office for free coffee and muffins – a nice touch.
We’d had a call from the park back in Utah to say that my lens had been found, and I arranged for it to be sent to Hope. [This ended up being a long process as we had to pay for the postage and the ranger was always off duty when we called, but the lens made it to Hope before we did.] My new lens was already on its way to Christina.
We drove 20 miles back to the Petrified Forest and found that it is really about four parks in one, spread along a one-way road. It begins with the Painted Desert, and then there is a monument to Route 66, some pueblo ruins and petroglyphs, and finally the forest itself. It seems very popular with motorcyclists, or at least with the companies that offer biking vacations. The bikers looked to be mainly Europeans and the bikes were rental Harleys and came with a support 
van.
At the entry booth “Do you have any petrified wood with you?” Um, yes. “Do you have a receipt?” From a Navajo? We had to dig Sandie’s 
rock out of the trailer and have it marked to show that we hadn’t stolen it from the park.
The Painted Desert was pretty but tame after what we’d seen recently. Route 66 involved a cute sculpture and an abandoned car. The pueblo ruins were just foundation walls. We enjoyed the search for petroglyphs on the surrounding 
rocks. These were typical. We also found some gaudy green collared lizards there, but they were too fast for pictures.
With all this, it was mid-afternoon before we saw our first petrified log. Although the name of the park is the petrified forest, there are no standing trees; they are all horizontal. What is unusual is the sheer number of complete trees, including one 
bridging a streambed and a few with their root balls still in place.
As is often the case, the wood has been petrified into agate and jasper and is very colourful. Apparently the ground around the trees used to be covered with millions of coloured crystals, but they’ve all been taken.
There were more lizards around the trees and these were quite happy to be photographed. I wondered why they felt so safe exposed on the 
trees, and I asked a ranger. “Those would be our Hollywood lizards,” was the reply.
Fossils are also found in the park but to see those we had to visit the museum, a welcome cool spot as the afternoon was hot
