Painted deserts and petrified forests

June 8, 2017

Further west! First stop is the Red Rock State Park and what do we see: Red rocks and redskins: Navajos. We are on their land, in their nation.

We cross the border into Arizona and right behind it is the petrified forest and the painted desert: Painted Desert National Park. At the entrance, a uniformed Navajo lady warns us not to take anything from the park. What we find to take away is incredible. In fact, whole forests were once flooded and covered in mud and water before the dinosaurs.

The trees have sucked out the minerals from the deposits and transformed themselves into stone. Tree trunks made of beautifully colored stone lying around everywhere in all sizes. In addition, fossils of dinosaur ancestors that are only found here have been unearthed.

In fact, pieces disappear every day in the trunks and caravans. We listened to the ranger's admonitions, even though she didn't point out the affordable annual pass. We bought a piece that was found outside the park, hopefully.

The desert has been painted by time and weather. The different layers of bizarre rock formations have all shades of blue imaginable. The pictures can't really capture that. The road winds through the different sections for 27 km and every viewpoint means countless Ahs and Ohs.

The time has flown by, we just made it out in time for closing at 7 pm. The ranger didn't feel like searching us anymore. We could have taken a small tree, but at the price of a broken axle.

Even so, it was difficult enough to reach the campsite in Flagstaff. The sun was already setting and painted another natural wonder in the sky that would have been worth its own national park.

A moment of panic at the campsite office. Our reservation was not recorded and there was nothing available anymore. Then something was canceled and at the same time someone found my mangled name through the telephone transmission.