Petrified Forest and beyond

It's hot. Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. We got up early this morning so that we could see the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert and Meteor Crater. The drive was about two hours East of our campground. The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert are National Parks, so you guessed it, the boys earned their Junior Park Ranger badges. I'm amazed by the difference in requirements to get the badges from park to park. For instance, Gettysburg has a giant, multi-colored book that takes hours upon hours to complete. One of the requirements for the Grand Canyon badge is that you attend a Ranger led program. Petrified Forest had none of that. It took about 20 minutes to complete and Sean needed very little help.

We walked around the Petrified Forest for maybe an hour. It is amazing that these rocks, beautiful, multi-colored rocks, were once trees. They range in size from teeny tiny to massive. It is obvious that this part of Arizona was once a beautiful, lush, forested area. There aren't just a couple trees, they are spread out for miles. It is a sight to see.

The Painted Desert is right there just a few miles from the Petrified Forest. The landscape in the Painted Desert is harsh. I wouldn't want to be stuck out there without water or shelter, but if I was, I could marvel at the beauty around me. The mesas and hills are red, yellow, purple, blue, black and white. We were there in late morning, so the colors weren't as vibrant as I've heard they can be in the early morning hours and late evenings. There is also an area known as "Newspaper Rock" that contains hundreds of petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are similar to pictographs except that petroglyphs are carved into the rock whereas pictographs are painted onto rocks. It looked like Native American graffiti. Truly fascinating.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at Meteor Crater. Meteor Crater is not a National Park, so you have to pay a hefty admission to get in. It was interesting, but a little pricey for a hole in the ground. The boys loved the impact simulator. You got to choose which object you wanted to hit, the Earth, the moon or Venus. Then you got to choose the size and density of the iron-nickel meteor, asteroid or comet, velocity, and angle of impact. Reid wanted me to mention in my blog that he created a meteor that would destroy the planet earth. He's very proud.

Now we are driving back. It's only 5 p.m. so we can finally get Sean to the pool. Honestly, if he asks me one more time if he can go to the pool today I'm going to run screaming off the nearest cliff. That wouldn't be too hard to find around here. I'm going to fix spaghetti for dinner. It will be nice to have a sit down meal with the family tonight. I'm glad we're going to be in early. Tomorrow is going to be a re-grouping day. The kids will get to enjoy some of the activities at the campground, I'll get some laundry done and head into Williams to do a little necessity shopping. We're starting to run a little low on a few provisions.

We've been on our little adventure for a week now. It has been fun. Other than a skinned knee, scrapped hand (both on Sean) and a smashed finger (me), we've not had any problems. We haven't had to deal with large crowds anywhere, my meal planning has served us well and we've had an opportunity to see things that we wounldn't otherwise be able to see and enjoy. We're already looking forward to our next adventure in August. We're planning on going to Boston and possibly Nova Scotia depending on Glenn's work schedule. You know I'll keep you posted.