The Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks

The desert is big, it's hot and it has cool stuff in it.

Day 24, 10-3-08.

I left Las Vegas early, or at least tried to, as I needed to carry 3 loads of stuff back across the casino floor to my car. I considered sticking around for another breakfast, but decided to get a move on instead, as I didn't have a good conception of time to and from the Grand Canyon.

First notable thing along the way was of course Hoover Dam. Not wanting to spend the time or get hit by all the cars like my own I didn't stop fro the dam tour. Or at least not of my own volition, owing to the security present. I suspect that someone post-9/11 wised up to the idea that it would be pretty easy to disrupt alot of people's lives if they did something to the dam while traversing it along route 93 from Vegas to Kingman, AZ so they put in checkpoints. They are also building a big huge bridge that will span the canyon downstream of the dam proper. While I'm sure the idea of additional lanes along the road was proposed to reduce congestion (the dam is 2 lanes wide) I bet, and hope it's also due to security concerns. The Google Earth pic of the area shows the construction project;the spans are almost linked in the middle as of my trip through them.

Anyways, the desert is big, and yet, it's not really that boring (or at least not cornfield boring). There are lots of vistas, colorful buttes and relief that kept my eye interested throughout the drive through Kingman and onto I-40, then the turn north towards the south Canyon road and the Grand Canyon Village visitor center. I had thought about going to the Indian overlook thing, but it was kinda pricey, and I have national parks pass, after all.



This overhead view of the Grand Canyon region by Grand Canyon Village looks visually impressive by itself, but gives no real information as to the scale of the thing. There is a big huge drop off.



Again, my pictures do not really do justice to the scope of the canyon. I was, really, impressed. It exceeded my expectations, but alot, and I am glad that I decided to go.






One of the nice things about crowded parks is that there are often people around to take your picture.

After picking up my jaw I returned to the visitor's center and bought souvenirs, and while again looking for postcard stamps (I never did find any, along the whole trip) I saw four bluebirds carrying on in a tree near the center.




The two males were palling around while the females flitted about another tree. Reminded me of a middle school dance.

I departed the canyon area around 6 at night, and the sun by this time of year is setting ever earlier, making my trip harder to make; if it's not light out I need to spend more days to see things instead of 2 or 3 things on one day. I drove south towards Flagstaff through a Navajo reservation, where all the day-traders had already packed up there wares for the day.

I approached Flagstaff around 7:30, and decided to continue on awhile to get closer to tomorrow's destination: Petrified Forest NP.

I ended up in Winslow, Nevada, and the Worst Hotel Of the Trip. Granted, what do you expect for $30 a night? Well, not much, but what I think I can expect is the absence of cockroaches.

Ah yes, cockroaches. Perhaps living in the north has coddled me, but this was the first time I had seen a live, wild cockroach. The first one crawled up the wall behind my television. The second crawled across the end of my bed. Then I called the manager. I got a new room, but suffice to say my night's sleep was fitful, and spent inside my sleeping bag on top of the bed.

Day 25, 10-4-08:

I left my creep-infested hotel room and traveled a few miles down I-40 to Holbrook, Nevada and took state route 180 to the southern end of The Petrified Forest National Park. Note that alot of the route here near I-40 is the historic route 66, and there was much fanfare and tourist-trap related to this fact. I stopped at a rock shop along the way and picked up a souvenir chunk of pertrified wood (a tree branch sized-piece it looks like) as I read you cannot pick up the petrified rocks. Which is all good.



In many cases, from a distance you would not be able to tell that the tree pieces were fossils or just downed timber. But up close the difference is clear, and the detail is often striking. Rings, injuries, insect damage, bark impressions are all starkly visible on the surfaces of the trees.




60 million years old? Some could have fallen last week.

Petrified Forest is more than a preserve for the trees though, and encompasses many scenic overlooks and natural formations like the Blue Mesa.



Then I found a welcome dose of humor: A tumbleweed!



This one as parked in an overlook, and rattled and rolled when kicked, punted and thrown. My first tumbleweed of the trip and an amusing one at that!

The Bonds, a family I knew from Williamston live in Kerrville, TX and invited me to stay with them tomorrow night. But first I had to get there. The park has a convenient onramp for I-40, so I began the long drive east to Albuquerque. At Albuquerque my gps told me to take a shortcut along AZ 6 to get onto I-25 south to El Paso.

So, I drove some more. Then, I kept driving. Did I mention the driving?

I arrived in El Paso around 8 at night, and as the Cockroach Inn didn't have wireless, I had to wing a place for the night. That was a chore, as El Paso seems to be laid out very strangely. I finally found a Motel 6 and rewarded their clever prominent price display with my business for the night. I settled in and prepared for another long drive tomorrow to Kerrville, far away in central TX.