Arizona - Day 6 - Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, and to Flagstaff

Flagstaff KOA, Flagstaff

Monday, 6 December 2021

today's route

Holbrook advertises itself as being the gateway to the Petrified Forest National Park and, as far as I can figure out, sits actually within the Painted Desert.  The area protected as painted desert is just a fraction of its true extent, which runs through the Petrified Forest as well.  Anyway, since I was in the neighborhood of those areas, I thought I'd drop by.

On the road

There are 2 visitor centers - the one focused on the Painted Desert sits on I-40 and is about 20 miles from Holbrook; the other focused on the Petrified Forest is down at the southern end of the protected area near US-180. 

The scenic drive for the combined two parks is 28 miles one way, most through the Petrified Forest south of I-40.

Painted Desert

This sign was at an overlook along the route.

These next 2 photos were taken at that same overlook, and I'm including them both so you can see the difference direct sun makes on the colors.

I was surprised to find that in most places the colors were more pastel, not nearly as vivid as I'd expected.

That sign just identifies some of the visible landmarks.
I didn't edit it out because it shows much more striking colors than my own photo.

Like I said - pastels.

Pastels with a few deeper hues.

Petrified Forest National Park

I crossed I-40 and didn't see more painted desert until quite a bit farther along the drive.  I didn't see petrified wood, either, at first, and as I understand it I'd have been able to see a great deal more if I'd gone for walks along some of their trails.  But I did see a few areas of the wood from the road.

I took another photo from a closer angle that turned out too out of focus to include.
But I saw more pieces at the visitor center.

They have signs everywhere begging people not to pick up souvenirs, saying folks can buy plenty at their gift center.  And I imagine a whole lot of the park has been carried off over the years before it was protected.

I was actually more interested in the odd land forms.  Here's a sample.

Even though it's gray, the layers of color are fascinating.
And the shape it's been given by wind (probably) is beautiful.

And here are some of the exhibits at the visitor center, explaining it all.

text is enlarged at right

photo of one type of conifer

Two more types of conifers.

So all that desert area I'd been driving through this morning
is explained here as being a cover over Triassic soils.  Amazing.

This sample of petrified wood sits outside the visitor center.
Hard to believe it's rock and not wood any more.

petrified wood - see
explanation below right

This sign explains that beautiful
piece of rock above left.

Note this talks about deposits near the equator - see why this matters below.

One of the best explanations of plate tectonics I've seen.

This view shows how Arizona actually sat on the Equator long ago.

I'm including this expanded view of that same map
because it labels the land mass as Pangaea.

I remember when I visited Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming they had a timeline of Earth's many changes (when lichens started forming, for instance), and one of them mentioned Pangea.  I had to look it up in earlier blog entries of course (you know I didn't actually remember all this detail), but I found one entry on their timeline was that Supercontinent Pangea was formed 250 million years ago, and that it broke up 200 million years ago.  According to this map here, Pangea included both North and South America as well as Europe and apparently some of Russia too.  No wonder they called it a supercontinent.

Back on the road

As I was leaving the park, I saw a sign warning me to watch out for men wearing hats and riding horses.  At least, that's what was pictured on the standard yellow warning sign.

Coming back into Holbrook on my way west, I saw a sign saying "Home of the Hashknife Pony Express."  None of that made much sense to me, but I looked it up anyway and am very glad I did.  There still is an official pony express that has a contract with the US Postal Service and once a year delivers 20,000 pieces of 1st class mail from Holbrook to Scottsdale.  Here's an explanation.   https://www.hashknifeponyexpress.com/hashknife-history  Who'd ever have thunk it?

My route included part of Historic Route 66, and I passed the Wigwam Motel, which looked about as you'd expect from its name.  I mention it because in front of each wigwam was an old vehicle that may have driven Rte. 66 back in the old days.  I found this photo online.

I came across another of those elevation 5,000' signs, and at least this one was only 3 miles from a town.

I passed warning signs about blowing dust, saw lots of tumbleweeds blown up against the fence along the highway, passed the Homolovi Ruins State Park (preserves ruins of Hopi dwellings from the 1200s and 1300s) and crossed the Colorado River twice.

And then I came to Winslow, elev. 4,850', est. 1880, where I expected to see someone standing on the corner.  And I did see one person standing on a corner near the post office, waiting for the light to change.  The downtown area has been declared a national historic district and is still much intact.  But I'm very sorry to say the town looks very tired and rundown, with many boarded up buildings.  Route 66 runs through town, of course, as the Eagles suggested, but if it ever had charm, I'm afraid the spark has gone out.

I saw a sign advertising "Johnny Martinez Plumbing - Call Us or Screw It Up Yourself."  Which is likely a winning advertising slogan.

As I was driving out of town I passed a sign that said, "A Galaxy Not Too Far Away (for Star Wars fans) and then "Meteor Crater 19 Miles."  I didn't stop for it but understand that a meteorite did hit here maybe 50,000 years ago.  It's been declared a National Natural Landmark, but because it's still privately owned it doesn't have any real government protection.  And I imagine as long as the owners can get people to cough up a lot of money (senior admission is $22), it'll stay that way.

Near exit 245 I saw another sign saying the elevation was 5,000' (I guess Winslow's down in a bit of a hole), and near milepost 217 I saw still another sign saying elevation was 6,000'.

I passed Padre Canyon and Coconino National Forest.  And at about that point the crosswinds got really squirrely, making me glad I didn't have much farther to drive.

All along today's drive I'd been seeing tall mountains in a mist, getting closer and closer as we drove west.  The only mountain range my AAA map shows in that area is the Juniper Mountains, so maybe that's what they are.  I passed a sign for Walnut Canyon, and then one for Walnut Canyon National Monument.  That area protects the remains of cliff dwellings used by the Sinagua who lived there 1100 to 1250.

And then to the Flagstaff KOA, where we had a reservation for the next 5 nights.