Sunshine and Silliness...

Part of my rotation experience this month has been the informal assignment of getting to know the local people, culture, and area. What a fun assignment! I've traveled to quite a few of the national parks nearby the past two weekends.

I started with Petrified Forest, south of Keams Canyon, which consists of a 35 mile drive through a small painted desert dotted with petrified logs. The Painted desert is amazing: hills of purple, red, tan and white stone and clay in horizontal layers. The clay itself is marked by lines where the water has flowed down for years. They look like foothills of a larger mountain. The best part is that for the most part they are only 60-80 feet tall!

The petrified wood is spectacular. The Crystal Forest walk is dotted with large and small examples of the stone that has been uncovered from the dirt over the years. The colors are primarily red (iron) and yellow, but also purple (manganese), white (quartz) and black. The quartz glints in the sunshine.






I also visited the Navajo National Monument (site of the Batatakin ruins and Keet Seel ruins). We were able to walk to an overlook near the Batatakin ruins, and another trail halfway down into the canyon. There is a 5 mile round-trip hike down into the canyon to actually enter the ruins, but only two groups a day (and not the day we visited). The Keet Seel hike is 8 miles one way, so that's something else for the future.





The same day we visited Monument Valley, which is a large valley filled with tall mesas and buttes. All of them have names, given likely by europeans (the Navajo names aren't revealed to bahanas like us) like "Camel," "Elephant," right and left "Mittens," "Sleeping Dragon" and others. There are natural arches like the "Eye" and "Ear of the Wind." We took the long tour and our guide Roy showed us a few places other tours don't routinely visit. (Look left, it's Michigan! I think Traverse City is in the dark shadow at the left)


Then yesterday afternoon my mom and I drove to the Grand Canyon (if I'm in Arizona I have to see it!) The sun highlighted the western-facing walls and the almost-endless number of layers of stone. The haze (pollution) blowing from California made the shaded eastern-facing hills look misty and the contours difficult to discern. We stayed until sunset to get pictures (along with about 300 other photographers and visitors at the same point!)

Today, Sedona and Jerome...

Labels: all about the national parks, baby