Skip to main content

Day 33 - Petrified Forest

Petrified Forest National Park is small and  on my route to Escalante Utah, so I stopped in for a quick tour. I like doing off the tourist trail stuff so my first adventure was a five mile round trip hike down into the Painted Desert badlands to the Angel's Garden, an out of the way petrified wood grouping. I hiked along the mile path out to a dry wash (path in desert floor where water flows after rains-- but otherwise dry). I then mistakenly hiked east along the wash, misreading the written directions in my travel guide. Realizing my mistake after fifteen minutes, I backtracked to the point I entered the wash and crossed north to hike the half mile to Angels Garden.  It felt good to arrive correctly to the petrified wood area.  My ability to navigate and find where I am is poor right now but my guided backpacking trip in Escalante should remedy that.  


Petrified wood is formed when ancient trees broke from their roots in floods. Sinking to the bottom of the river bed they were covered in sediment and slowly over time chemicals in the sediment replaced the cellulose cells with stone, making stone trees. Mostly stone tree stumps and small blocks of logs at this point, the petrified wood is mixed in everywhere at the park, adding color to an otherwise grayish desert environment.  


Petried Forest was a nice day trip but a bit singular and repetitive in scenery.  My favorite part of the park was the scenic Crystal Forest.



After experiencing the park, I continued west along the highway to Flagstaff. One of my guides had recommended some shoes for they ability to keep sand out.  I found a pair at Run Flagstaff and bought them. I mentioned my shin splint to the salesman and he suggested buying some compression sleeves, fabric sock material that covers ankle to calf, increasing blood circulation to the shin and pushing out bad amino acids. He then mentioned the help keep your muscles loose while driving. Sold!  

Seeing an email from Uncle Page about a meteor shower and wanting to get close to Escalante tonight so I could take a day off driving tomorrow, I hit the road north out of town and headed toward Utah. The road went through a scenic Marble Canyon and Echo Cliffs area of Navajo Nation before climbing a mountain pass to head towards Glen Canyon Dam and Utah. 



Sunset was setting in just as I was entering Utah and boy!! was it beautiful. I decided to push on into the night darkness to a national forest just outside Bryce Canyon.  With a free camping site located online and targeted in GPS, I ate jelly bellies and drank diet coke while scanning for deer and made it to the campsite just at 10:30 for the meteor shower. I only saw two small meteors but as I gazed up at the sky from the open door of the van I thought "what a great end to the first month of adventures-- gazing toward the sky in search of something special."





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Days 89 and 90 - Waterton

I started my journey north to Canada today. My plan was to head to Waterton Lakes, just north of Glacier, then to Calgary, then the Canadian Rockies parks of Banff, Jasper, Yoho, Glacier and a few others, then to Vancouver and finally to Seattle, all over the next several weeks. But first I needed the Internet!  I drove south out of Many Glacier to a place I remembered having cell reception.  I did some emailing and calling back home, did some research for my Canada trip and watched the final three episodes of Game of Thrones--wow, the final two episodes were sensational. This rainy, dreary day was perfect for such activities. I then drove into Canada late in the evening and to a campground set in the cloudy mountains at Waterton.  The weather cleared a bit the next day and I was able to do some hiking around this scenic alpine lakes district.  Waterton Lakes district from a high hill called Bear's Hump: The chipmunks at Bear's Bump were very interested in the conten...

Day 106 - Seattle

My July 4th started with a drive from Vancover to Seattle, arriving at the Museum of Flight by 11. The museum tour began with a display of the 27 U.S. Flags, made interesting by announcing the history of the states entry into the union.  This B-17 is similar to the bomber my grandfather flew in WW2. A former Air Force One plane that Kennedy road on was another highlight.  I stayed all day at the museum enjoying the history of aviation exhibits and finally space! I drove into downtown Seattle to checkout the city parks reserved for fireworks watching. These neighborhoods were crawling with people and would make horrible stealth street camping sites. I called several hostels and all were full... but then I found one with one bed left. I reserved the spot and drove to the hostel to find it in walking distance to the fireworks. I joined a group waking down to see the fireworks. We were joined by a few others.  Two skydivers with fire flaming behind their path were followed by...

Day 93 - Calgary to Banff

After a very pleasant morning at Dave's house spent photocopying trail and scramble guide routes, enjoying a great breakfast and coffee, meeting some of Dave's extremely kind family members and chatting more about adventures, I set out for downtown Calgary.  I thought a walk around a museum would be a nice change of pace, so I toured the Glenbow Museum. Two highlights were a Blackfoot Indian describing the meaning of their Tipi decorations and the Gun Scupture. The history of Alberta section was also quite interesting: fur trappers then cowboys then railroad builders then oil drillers.  I then walked down to a nearby waterfront park, along a pedestrian only shopping street where a Christian pride rally was taking place, and then down quiet side streets to the park. Seeing people out jogging and playing on this Sunday afternoon reminded me of the real life I must one day return to. But not yet! Hungry and ready for mountains, I walked back to my van and left Calgary heading wes...