On our way from Oklahoma we took a slight detour and drove through through two National Parks. They are right next to each other and just off the highway so we actually saw the highlights within 4 hours - we would highly recommend seeing them if you are in the area.
This is painted desert - beautiful vistas that go on forever. We could actually see snow capped mountains from Flagstaff in the distance (though we couldn't get a decent picture).
Interesting little mini-mountains...
The colors were a mix of reds and browns...
This is called Newspaper rock - they have documentation of it being discovered in the early 1900's. This is just one of the rocks in the area with this much writing on it...
Just across the freeway is the Petrified Forest National Park. The wood has turned to stone over thousands of years - at one time this desert was full of water, volcanic ash was deposited into the water and that changed the cell composition of the wood. At the same time iron, quartz and crystal infused into the wood. I have the admit the entire process is still confusing to me but that's what I could gather from the NPS handouts...
A lot of the petrified wood was broken up like this. There was a sign at the park that talked about souvenir's being taken in the early 1900's - but in one of the handouts they state "because the sections are still in order we know that the logs fractured after they were buried and the petrification process was complete."
This area reminded me of Craters of the Moon National Park in Idaho.
Love the colors of the sediment!
A cute little mini-mountain!
This is a piece of petrified wood that was found in the 1920's - the powers that be at the time decided to reinforce it with concrete. The sign near it stated that they do not reinforce or alter anything anymore and that it's better to let nature take it's course.
We went out Jeepin one day once we had settled back in at home. This is a very crooked Saguaro cactus. Saguaro's don't generally get arms until they've been around 75 years and can live to be 200 years old. When fully hydrated they will weigh 3,200 to 4,800 pounds.
It took us about 4 hours to go 8 miles. It wasn't very technical - just very rocky.
We only saw two other people on the trail - and they were hiking...even though this trail is just a few miles from Mesa.
So many Saguaro's...they can only be found in the Sonoran Desert.
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