Mother Nature Rules

Sunday, July 21, 2013
Sedona to Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

Any day that starts with a bunny wabbit outside your window has to be a good one!  After breakfast and car packing we leave Sedona for the last time.  It's been fabulous but it's time to move on.

Isn't he adorable?

Never saw a McDonald's M was wasn't yellow!

 Since we have some time we drive back up Oak Creek Canyon so I can see it in the daylight.  More beautiful red rocks!  We're so stuffed from breakfast that we don't even stop at the Butterfly Market for more of those delicious cookies!

Our first stop is supposed to be Meteor Crater National Landmark so we can be awed and amazed by the huge hole in the ground.  It's a national landmark, so maybe my national parks pass will work.  It seems odd, though, that there are so many commercial, cutsie signs leading up to it.  Well, it turns out that a private company owns this national landmark and they want fifteen bucks to come see the hole in the ground.  I'd seen it years ago with Harry b.k. and Marilyn just humors me on the geology stuff anyway, so we turn around thinking what they can do with their fifteen bucks!  I'm still pretty ticked off that a private company can own a national landmark!

The whole affair looks just this tacky!

Back on I-40 and heading for the Petrified Forest...there are lots and lots of trains out here in the middle of nowhere, Arizona! They are hauling containers and tanker cars and seem to go for miles. Other than the trains, we saw a windmill or two and a few horses and cattle and miles of open land.

Oh yes, and a dust devil!

Eventually there is a sign for the Petrified Forest and although it isn't the exit I had thought we would use, we take it and cross more open land before coming to the southern entrance.  Just outside the park there are dueling gift shops on either side of the street with pieces of petrified wood for sale.  I'm sure they were collected legally, outside the park.  We buy some ice for the coolers and proceed northward.

And Route 66 has returned to haunt us!

Even if you have seen petrified wood before there is an enormous kick from seeing it in its natural setting and such abundance!  We stop at many of the southern vistas and do some of the hikes and as we go further north we realize that we are also seeing the Painted Desert!  So gorgeous!

In one of the parking lots we meet my old friend, Mr. Raven.

And back to the beautiful petrified trees!

check out the micro-crystals! 

There are rain cells on all sides of us and we even see some lightening but we never get the first drop! The last stop for us, though, comes when the wind is blowing at least fifty miles an hour and is slapping us in the face with fine sand that stings like crazy!

Scattered like a giant's toothpicks!

A good geology photo always has something for scale!

You can really see the bark in this one.

The plan is to return tomorrow morning to see the rocks and sand in different light and to do more of the hikes.  For now we are starving, having missed lunch one more time, and we need to find our motel before the rains begin in earnest.

And in case you think I was kidding about the sand, have a look:

It's not too far back to Holbrook and how hard can it be to find a Ramada right on the main highway.  Well, if you don't know that they've changed to a Howard Johnson's, pretty darn hard!  Two phone calls and a false stop later, we arrive.  We had pulled into a Southern Comfort to ask for help but the desk clerk was on the phone to tech support.  There was a young man in the lobby who said he lived in the town.  When I asked him where the Ramada was he pointed next door.  I said, "No, that's a Howard Johnson's and pointed to the large sign."  He looked like one of us was living in a different dimension and said, "Well, it used to be a Ramada!".  One more phone call and we're home free.

Our desk clerk, Patricia, is a funny lady.  When I told her never to call her daughter by her middle name, she said she never calls her, she just throws something at her!  She also showed us the email she had JUST received about our reservation.  We showed her our email that was dated April 12th.  She said they do that to her all the time.  Must be a terrible situation for her!  Luckily she had a room for us and even made sure we are on the ground floor.

Patricia recommended The Mesa for dinner.  It's an Italian restaurant with a sports bar attached;  but they are really separate entities.  The salad is fresh and my chicken cacciatore is delicious.  As usual I can't eat it all;  but I was smarter this time and eat all the goodies before starting on the pasta.  That way only some pasta was left.  I might have eaten it all if the garlic bread hadn't been so light and tasty!

Seems like we're back on Route 66 for the second time today!

Back home to blog and bed!