Tuesday, May 16, 2023
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Painted Desert Visitor Center (1961-1963, by
Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander, to serve as the
headquarters for Petrified Forest National Park) is an
example of Mission 66 "Park Service Modern" architecture |
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Pteri & Dawn (2020, by Catherine Danae, who creates
sculptures by needle felting wool) (KSS) |
Our Senior National Park Passes saved us the $25 entrance fee to Petrified Forest National Park. The first part of the 28-mile/45 km park road had viewpoints of the Painted Desert.
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| Panoramic view from Tiponi Point (KSS) |
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Painted Desert Inn (1937-1940, by Lyle E Bennett
in Pueblo Revival style, was built by the Civilian
Conservation Corps/CCC, 1947 revisions by
Mary Jane Colter when the building was a Fred Harvey
Harvey House/restaurant); now a museum |
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| Panoramic view from Whipple Point |
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| View from Lacy Point |
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A 1932 Studebaker shell sits where Route 66
once cut through the park |
After crossing over I-40 and railroad tracks, we headed south into Petrified Forest National Park.
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| Oenothera deltoides/Dune Evening Primrose |
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Puerco Pueblo Ruins of an ancestral Pueblo village that
existed from 1250 to 1380 CE (KSS) |
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| Puerco Pueblo Ruins |
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| Remains of a Kiva, an underground room used for ceremonies |
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| Petroglyphs below the ruins (KSS) |
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| A closer look at the petroglyphs |
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| People petroglyphs |
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So just right of center, is that a bird eating a man?
(you would have to know the artist to learn the answer) |
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Note the crack in the large rock on the left - at certain angles,
sunlight shines through the crack and leaves a lighted
line on the side of the flat rock on the right |
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Below that "light" line is a symbol of the sun
that will be touched by the bottom of
the light line on summer solstice |
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Flower buds of some kind of yucca (KSS)
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Newspaper Rock is seen from an overlook where
telescopes are provided to see the numerous petroglyphs
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| Too far for the zoom to pick up the detail |
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One of the Teepees that are banded with darker layers
caused by higher carbon content, and red layers by iron;
we know white people gave the formations this name,
since the Navajos and Hopis do not live in teepees |
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One view of the Blue Mesa (the reddish chunks in
the foreground are pieces of petrified wood) |
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| Bluff after bluff after bluff of the Blue Mesa |
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| Far below we can see the paved Blue Mesa Loop Trail |
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We are beginning to see more sections of
petrified tree trunks close to the road |
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| Kent & Tamiko selfie with petrified wood |
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Agate Bridge is a petrified log spanning a gully;
because people stood on the bridge, it was
reinforced with a concrete beam in 1917 |
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| Stanleya pinnata/Prince's Plume (KSS) |
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Once people could walk through Jasper Forest, but due to
illegal petrified wood removal, hiking is limited; these
logs are mostly from trees growing along rivers;
when the trees died and fell into the water, they
were transported here by a network of rivers and were
deposited here around 218 million years ago |
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| Rocks and petrified wood |
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| The Battleship (KSS) |
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| Calochortus aureus/Golden Mariposa Lily |
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| Sphaeralcea parvifolia/Small-leaf Globemallow |
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Crystal Forest had petrified wood with
a greater amount of quartz |
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Petrification is when organic matter is replaced
with minerals, creating a fossil |
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| Crystal Forest |
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Although petrified wood is hard, it is brittle, and
logs usually break up into sections |
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| Welcome to Holbrook, AZ |
Next: Roue 66 in Arizona.
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