Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

Another day, another National Park!  Today's destination was The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.  After a 20 min detour, thanks to our not so trusty GPS, Jesse, we made it there.

First we visited the Petrified Forest Visitor Center and Museum.  We saw fossils and learned how the petrified wood was formed.  It was pretty cool to be in an area that is now desert but once was filled with leafy trees, lakes, and all sorts of plant life.

We then went on a small hike, and saw lots of petrified wood, including a tree that Albert Einstein was photographed in front of.  That was wild!  It was hot, very hot!

After that we we traveled to another trail, this one was filled with crystallized wood as well.  Actually, some of these logs contained amethyst and other precious gems.  Maddie really liked the crystals.  The only downfall to this part of the trip was that it was 88 degrees in the hot sun and we were all uncomfortable.   But we did make it, then all devoured a ton of water.

The next few stops were overlooks and we got out to see some but as the day got longer we started just pulling over and taking pictures out of the window.  We made it through to the Painted Desert side and did get out for some photos.  It was indeed beautiful.  Doug went a little crazy with the picture taking doing his click and turn, click and turn.

We also stopped at the Route 66 marker for some photos.  They had an old car there too, the girls liked it!

Next we found a little museum on the Painted Desert side that contained some historic pieces from when the park was first being built as well as photographs of Historic Route 66.  It also contained a petroglyph and traditional Navajo weaving. There was a Navajo Jewelry Artisan there as well, and Doug and the girls selected a beautiful bracelet with petrified wood in it for me.  I love it!

We ended up at the visitors center and gift shop at the other side, the girls bought some petrified wood samples, and Doug and I ogled some pieces of petrified wood as well.  Some of the pieces were amazingly beautiful.

On our way back to the campground we found the TeePee Motel, which we think was the basis for part of the Disney/Pixar Movie Cars.  I figured why not drive through.  Hailey went nuts taking pictures of the tee pees and classic cars. Doug just shook his head- LOL!

We got back to the campground and had dinner and just like last night as soon as the girls were ready to take a swim it started to thunder and lightning.  We took another walk to the edge of the campground and watched the sunset and light
ning.

Now it is raining outside so we are all tucked inside the camper.  It was a wonderful day.  Tomorrow we have another adventure.