There are not many times lately I feel like complimenting our government, but after visiting 2 of our county’s National Parks this week let’s celebrate the good that it has done.
We visited the Grand Canyon earlier this week and words don’t do it justice. Neither do the photos and they still are amazing. We discovered that schools in the western US all have spring break in March making things crowded. Luckily we knew this ahead and went early.
The park is 1900 square miles and well planned and thought out. The trails follow the the south rim and are paved and wide. Surprisingly you get get pretty close to the edge. Beautiful testament to nature and the power of water!
Our next stop was The Petrified Forest National Park. We didn’t realize it was so big and so much more than petrified logs. The term Forest refers to when the crystallized logs on the ground where trees in a rainforest surrounded a huge river, 216 million years ago! When they fell and sunk in the river, overtime the minerals in the water crystallized in tree. They look like a regular log from a distance but when you get closer you see it is rock and crystals.
This was only a small part of the Painted Desert . Red rock mesas with stripes of blue, purple and brown are a look through geological time. You can’t help but wonder what must have been going on on our planet during each color phase. It was an overcast day and the pics do not do it justice.
Between the to parks we took a ride on the iconic Rt 66 and had to stop to stand on a corner in Winslow, Arizona!
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