Arizona Rocks!!!

Painted Desert Inn
Painted Desert
Petrified Forest
Watch you don't get a splinter!
Petroglyphs
Old car on Route 66. The poles behind the car mark the path of the old road. The truck in the background is on I-40

....standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

Rim of Meteor Crater from five miles away.
Looking down into the crater.

Yesterday we visited the Petrified Forest National Park which includes the Painted Desert, an ancient pueblo (rock buildings) with petroglyphs (rock carvings), as well as the petrified rocks. Also in the park is the old Painted Desert Inn that was originally built out of petrified rock. It has since been covered with adobe and is no longer used as an inn. The colors of the Painted Desert are caused by the various minerals that are in the rocks and as you walk through the desert the different angles and sunlight change the colors. Every way you turn you see different beautiful colors. The petrified wood is the result of trees that were buried in silt, mud and volcanic ash which prevented decay and allowed silica-laden water to seep through the logs replacing the original wood tissue and turning it into rock. The colors are also caused by the various minerals that were in the water. While there is petrified wood all over the world this is the only place with enough to be called a forest. It is not only in the park but also on many privately owned properties. The rock trees are lying on the ground like big logs and some look like you could get a splinter if you touched them. The pueblo ruins and petroglyphs in the park are from the 1100's but no inhabitants were found when the Spanish explored in 1540. Today we traveled along more of Route 66 and got to rock with the Eagles by "standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona." In a shop in Winslow they had only one Eagles poster on sale and it was for the October 1979 Long Run Tour concert at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. We also went to Meteor Crater, one of the best preserved impact craters on Earth. The crater was formed over 50,000 years ago when a 150 wide "rock" hit the planet. The crater is 4000 feet across, 2 1/2 miles around the rim and if the Washington Monument were standing in the middle you could look into its windows. The crater is privately owned and in the early 1900's several mine shafts were dug attempting to find iron ore but none has ever been found. Like so many of the natural wonders we have seen the pictures can not capture the size, beauty or how much they "rock."