Texas Gypsies: Painted Desert and Petrified Forest near Holbrook, AZ

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

As we drove from Camp Verde to Holbrook, AZ, we could see the snow-capped San Francisco Peaks. The highest is the Humphreys Peak which is the highest point in the state of Arizona at 12,633 feet in elevation.

We arrived at Sun Valley RV "Resort" about noon.

This "resort" lacked a lot to even come close to a RV park.

This was our parking site. Yes we are barely off the road. There are absolutely no amenities. We did have 50amp service. We did not hook up to the sewer or water. We did put some water in my bucket to wash the bugs off the front of the coach and it had so much dirt in it that it would have made the coach more dirty. It was really gross!!!
We recommend that no one stay at this park ever!

We took off for the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest which were about 20 miles from the campground.

We started in the Painted Desert. I was amazed at the undulating red "bumps" in the landscape here at Tiponi Point.

Here at Tawa Point we are starting to see a thick layer of volcanic ash. The 3 pictures below are from the same Tawa Point.

It was amazing how vast the Painted Desert was.

Above and below are Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark.

The Inn was built in the 1930s by the CCC. The Inn closed many years ago and is now used as a museum.

This is where the restaurant area of the Inn was.

We are getting better at selfies. Pretty cool background also.

From Chinde Point you can see the dry river bed. In the summer when the monsoons come, the water flows quickly through this valley.

This spot is where the famed Route 66 once cut through the park.

This 1932 Studebaker isn't going any farther. The car is actually older than Tic. Hee Hee

We stopped to see the Puerco Pueblo as we headed into the Petrified Forest. There were lots of petroglyphs along the trail. See the following 7 pictures.

According to the information plaque, this is a migration symbol.

The above was called a Kachina Panel.

The story with this one is funny to me. There was an Indian tale that a large bird would come into villages and take the bad children. Too funny.

Lots of interesting petroglyphs.

Next we headed to the "Newspaper Rock". We were not sure what to expect.

This is the "Newspaper Rock". Apparently many tribes "wrote" on this rock as they migrated through. Below is another side of the same rock.

This rock was close by. Lots of petroglyphs!

Is this strange or what?!? We decided it was the bottom and roots of a tree that fell over and petrified.

Both the above and below pictures are from the area called Blue Mesa.

The picture above is a zoomed view from the picture below.

Starting with the picture below the next 3 pictures are all taken looking out over the Blue Mesa area.

I expected to see some standing trees, but not the case.

After seeing this tree trunk being uncovered by the erosion, I realized that the "forest" was buried under lots of volcanic ash and other sediment. Very interesting!

Above and below are more colorful geology as we head to the Jasper Forest.

Here we are at the Jasper Forest view point.

Dusty is pointing to the many water ways created when the monsoons come.

This area is very colorful with some purple even showing. Beautiful!

Now we are in the Crystal Forest. The picture above shows a pile of uncovered petrified wood. Below is a closeup of the pile of pieces.

Now we are at the Rainbow Forest Museum and Giant Logs.

The many colors inside this petrified log just amazed us.

Tic took this picture to show how big around this giant petrified log is. Below Dusty is sitting on the same log.

While this log looks like it was cut into pieces, close inspection shows jagged edges on the broken pieces. Tic is standing at one end of the tree & Dusty is actually standing on the other end of the tree. HUGE!