Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, AZ

I remember when I was a teenager in Junior High school, late 60’s, I took a cross country roadtrip from Los Angeles, California to Chattanooga, Tennessee with my dad, step mom and young siblings in a green and white VW van, in December. We went to visit my step moms family for Christmas. It was the second time I had been out of California. (My first time out of the state was to Ensenada, Mexico with my mom). It was on that trip that my dad taught me how to read paper maps and made me his designated navigator. I LOVED reading the maps for him and exploring. It was on that trip that I KNEW I would take more road trips, because it was such an awesome adventure and learning experience. It was on that trip in Chattanooga, TN when I experienced racism for the very first time in my life. (That is another story.)

I said all of that to say, on our way back from Tennessee we drove through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. I KNEW I’d go back some day because it was such a beautiful geologic wonder. It was also on this trip that I first saw the Grand Canyon. 😳 Mind blowing.

This morning, most RVs are gone, but there are still a lot of big rigs.

We left Wal-Mart about 9:30 this morning and many of our fellow travelers are already on the road.

Sidebar: I forgot to mention that when we were at the Four Aces RV Park, for the first time, I saw an armadillo not in captivity!! He was roaming near an RV digging for worms and bugs. The camp host, who was talking with us as we hooked up said, he had been trying to catch it. So, I naively asked, “When you catch him who do you call, animal control?” He looked at me and laughed, “Animal Control? NO, I will shoot him and throw him down by the river.” My expression: 😳🥺 He explained that armadillos will sometimes hitch a ride on the big hay rigs from Texas. This is the second one in seven years to hitch a ride and land in his RV Park. They dig a lot of holes and ruin his park… I get it. I don’t agree with him killing it, but I get it😔.

Anyway, I have A LOT of pix to share. Enjoy!

Take a ride with us, oh! A train!🚞

We arrived at our destination; the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert this afternoon. As previously stated, I had been here once before with my dad MANY, MANY, MANY years ago. Craig had never been here so I wanted to share this geological wonder with him!😁

We stopped in the visitor center. I bought a hat and picked up the four page brochure, below. Good info!!

A glimpse of the landscape and its enormity.

A cool magnet I saw in the visitor’s center. The Historic Route 66 goes from Santa Monica, CA to Chicago, IL. Did u know that?🤔

Me practicing selfies, wearing my new hat.🧢

This pic does not do the landscape justice. It is like a mini Grand Canyon.

After walking around this first lookout point we started walking back to our rig. (By the way, I use rig, RV and Shorty interchangbly. 😉) Anyway, as we approached Craig noticed that the bracket holding our exhaust pipe broke! He said, “hum, a wire hanger would be handy right now.” (We don’t use wire hangers, I don’t like them.) But fortunately for us, we had just purchased a dual- pack fly swatter! Wala!! We have wire! So there in the parking lot Craig “Jimmy-rigged” our exhaust pipe! It is a temporary fix, of course. “Ghetto ingenuity” as he called it.😉👍🏽

Craig adjusting the wire to secure the exhaust pipe.

Craig “Jimmy-rigged” our exhaust pipe with the wire from a fly swater!

We hopped in and drove to the next lookout point. It was more beautiful than the first!

This Adobe visitor center was adjacent to the parking lot and was closed due to Covid.

Craig and I both LOVE, Adobe, Spanish style homes, just LOVE them. So I have a few pix of this structure.🤪

A video of God’s majestic, creative beauty, the Painted Desert 🏜.

There are some hiking trails; But be prepared, you have been warned.

A trail head. Nope, I did not explore this trail.

Shorty waiting patiently for our return.🤭🙃

We explored the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest for an hour or so and then we hit the road. Our next stop is Winslow, AZ. The Eagles song, “Take it Easy” put Winslow on the map. One line is 🎶”Standing on the corner of Winslow, Arizona, seven women on my mind…take it easy.”🎶🎵

There are so many things to see while travelling. Here are a few sights along the way to Winslow.

We saw these two little guys on the side of the road.😝

METEOR CRATER?!?! I thought about stopping… but we didn’t.

We stopped at this diner last year, so we thought we’d patronize them again.

Here we are standing on the corner of Winslow, AZ!

This is our second visit to Winslow, so we only hung out for a half hour or so. There are a couple of souvenir shops and a couple of little diners but not much else to see. Anyway, on to Prescott to see our friends Mark and Roxanne. The following pix were taken between Winslow and Prescott, AZ

Beautiful highway view, So many trees.🌲🌳

Trees changing color. Not a terrific pic, but can u see the orange, yellow and green leaves?

Rolling down the highway, Prescott bound.

Well, we are here in Prescott Valley parked in a shopping center parking lot so Craig could conduct his 7 p.m. Thursday night Zoom call with his sisters and nieces. While they talk, it provides me time to work on this blog, relaxed in my bed, in the back of our rig.

Well, its almost 8:30 and Craig is wrapping up his call. Time for me to wrap up this blog and get ready to get together with Mark and Roxanne! 😁🤩Until tomorrow.