Visiting the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest National Parks
On Wednesday Oliver, the Wonder Service Dog and I took our first road trip from our temporary home in Chinle. After we dropped Ruth off at her job with the Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Center we headed south headed for Petrified Forest National Park. The purpose was to check out the park; if interesting enough we would return with Ruth.
There are few roads to take in this part of the world; of course, I got lost anyway. Hey, the road was good and headed in the right direction, although it was exceedingly desolate. On the up side, there was no traffic beyond a few free-range cattle and a car every half hour so. And there were some fabulous rock formations. I was so far off the grid that my Maps app had no signal. We have OnStar on Red and they had a good signal but even they were unable to send me directions. No worries, I kept headed south; all I had to do was intersect I-40 and that is a very long target. I found it and the Park easily.
My little detour through the empty quarter of Arizona had a very small impact on my arrival at the park entrance. In one sense Petrified National Forest is not much. There is a small unimpressive welcome center situated in a typical scrubby high desert plain. The park is mainly a drive-thru park with pullouts to view the scenery, and oh my there is some magnificent scenery – unexpectedly so. First you come to the northern ‘Painted Desert’ portion of the park. Erosion has stripped away layers of earth leaving behind exotic outcroppings tinted in shades; beige, ocher, blue, purple, and pink stretching off to a distant horizon.
After taking in some of the Painted Desert vistas we drove on for six miles over I-40 and into the Petrified Forest portion of the park. Oliver and I explored the ancient ruins of Puerco Pueblo, stopping to admire the rock pictographs first at Puerco Pueblo some of which were surprisingly good. I was so impressed I stopped at Newspaper Rock just down the road. Newspaper Rock was a series of rock faces with over 600 drawings scattered over them. Some were good, some looked like they were mere doodles. The overlook was a fair distance from the pictographs and even with the provided telescopes they were uninspiring to me. I drove on to the next turnout, Blue Mesa.
Blue mesa is just that – there is a faint but definite ‘blueish’ tint to the rocks. One side trip at Blue Mesa was especially interesting. At one pull out an elderly park volunteer, John, a retired doctor, took us over a low hill to an especially fine set of petrified logs. He was a wealth of information about the region and how and when these plants became rocks. Not only was he interesting, he was also artlessly charming.
I decided that the park deserved another visit with Ruth this time. Oliver and I headed down the long road home, taking the ‘short’ way this time.
Saturday was the day of our Big Road Trip. First, we would visit Petrified Forest, then we would swing by the bustling city (by comparison) of Gallup, New Mexico. Gallup has a Walmart, the only one within a hundred miles of Chinle. It also has a place that sells wine another rarity in this desolate region.
After breakfast, Ruth and I headed south, stopping along the way at Hubble Trading Post National Historic Site. This trading post has been in continuous operation since 1878. About half of it is dedicated to the sale of various native art and half to groceries and various sundries – sort of a 19th Century Walmart/flea market. Every step on the old wood floor gave a new and unique squeak. We had a nice chat with the friendly lady behind the counter before heading down the road.
We breezed into the Petrified Forest National Park and stopped to check out some of the spectacular vistas in the Painted Desert. It was a beautiful but windy day. The air was so clear that distances were hard to estimate. The land was spectacular as far as the eye could see.
Once again, we stopped at Puerco Pueblo. This pueblo, located near the Puerco River was inhabited for millennia. Unlike many ancient ruins such as White House in the Canyon de Chelly, this hilltop pueblo was surrounded at one time by a stone wall about a hundred yards on a side with houses within, outlined by their stone foundations. It has only been slightly restored, just showing a kiva (underground room) and the outlines of some of the buildings and the outer walls. I was very impressed with the remains of this sturdy little village. The reason for its location was obvious – the river provided a natural conduit for trade. Archeologists have found many items in the excavation that came from hundreds of miles away. It is a natural east/west conduit. Looking out I could see I-40 in the distance. Route 66 also came through near here. And we could see the Sante Fe Railroad with seemingly never-ending lines of mile-long trains. This place is still on a transportation artery.
We took time to pose for pictures at some of the turnouts. You can tell it was a windy day. John was not there on that day but there were plenty of petrified logs and splendid vistas.
Our next stop was at Agate Bridge, an enormous petrified tree that has had the rock eroded from beneath it. Just over a hundred years ago they put a concrete support under it to prevent it from breaking up. That would be a definite no-no today. From Agate Bridge, drove on to the Jasper Forest. There were plenty of rock logs here! Ruth decided that she had seen plenty of rock logs, telling me that she was ‘just not that into rocks’.
Oliver briefly explored the hundreds of log segments. He was profoundly puzzled how a rock could look like so much like a log. I was fascinated by the beautiful colors inside some of the log cross sections. Some of the bits were fully petrified and resembled rocks that were log-like. Others were apparently partially petrified and initially appeared to be organic wood – until you picked them up and felt their weight. After Oliver and I walked around for a bit we departed the Park and headed out for Gallup.
Gallup was a full hour east of the park. The first order of business was to visit Walmart. I do not often go to Walmart; I have lots of choices where I live. People around here travel a long way to get essential items in this part of the world. This particular store offered everything we needed; little things like socks, tweezers, brushes, and some food items we cannot get in our little grocery store in Chinle.
This is the only Walmart-type store in over a hundred miles. It is a big one, with a big parking lot. And on this Saturday afternoon, that parking lot was chock full. So was the store. It is the most crowed Walmart I have ever seen or probably will see and almost all of the people were Native American. Rural America, stocking up on stuff on Saturday. Despite the crowds, we got the things we needed, except for one – wine. We scored that at a nearby package store followed by a wash for Red who was just filthy.
Finally, we took advantage to eat at a different restaurant besides one of the ones in Chinle. While living in the motel we have to eat out every night and our choices in Chinle are limited to three restaurants, and that includes a Denny’s. We figured that Jerry’s Café would not be too busy at 4:00 PM on a Saturday. Wrong, the place was packed. We found out why when we ate the food – it was wonderful. Fortunately, we found a parking place right in front of the place and a table opened up for us just as we walked in. We credit Father Sean’s blessing.
After that all we had to do was motor the hundred miles back home to Chinle. It was a most enjoyable road trip.
TBLOG 