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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."





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