Petrified

As the sun lightened the eastern sky, we walked Troon North for a half hour of brisk morning exercise. On the Road Again played in my head as we packed up Little Red, said goodbye to Shannon after a wonderful visit and drove east out of Scottsdale. It was Day #106 of our trip, and we really were on the indirect way back home.

"I would have thought we would be seeing snow already," said Andy, as we headed northeast toward Holbrook, Arizona. Peaks accented both sides of the highway, with Route #87 threaded between them. He pushed up the lever for the heater. "It's getting colder here. I can tell all of a sudden," he added. "Grand Canyon National Park is supposed to drop to five below tomorrow, so I'm surprised there is no snow here." We drove through Payson and headed east on Arizona Route #260. Bright sun warmed the land to 51 degrees and even surrounding peaks rose green against the sky. Only the couple high fleecy cirrus clouds hinted at precipitation to come. "We're going up again," said Andy, as we climbed through Tonto National Forest. "It will be a lot colder when we get out of the car now." The GPS reading climbed too. At 7,500 feet a dusting of snow whitened some crevices in the rocks. By 7,624 feet snow patches a couple inches deep filled all the nooks and lined the north facing roadside. Near the crest at 7,719 feet we passed a small frozen lake, Wilton Spring Lake, but only a few white patches on the south facing side dotted the mountains of Sitgreaves National Forest between the ponderosa pines and cedars.

For 30 miles south of Holbrook, Route #377 passed in a narrow ribbon through high plateau ranch land. Red rock, bunch grass and sage covered the plains in every direction. Occasionally a couple black cows grazed near wire fences. "If the forecast is right," said Andy, "it could be snowing when we get up tomorrow. Phoenix is due for half an inch of rain, so that's a pretty big storm."

"It's cool out, but we can walk comfortably in jackets," I answered, climbing back into Little Red after snapping a photo of the Holbrook sculpture at the edge of the city. We stopped again on the other side of Holbrook. Ranch grass stretched as far as we could see, and brush strokes of clouds painted streaks and dabs overhead.

We're going to see the clouds before Shannon does in Scottsdale," said Andy. "It's coming across the state at an angle."

We turned north toward the Petrified Forest.

Giant Logs Trail behind the Visitor Center offered a quarter mile taste of the colorful petrified giants, trees buried during the Triassic Period.

Crystal Forest Trail, nearly a mile around, earned its name from the white quartz log sections. But we also read that sadly 12 tons of petrified wood were removed from the park every year, and here many of the most beautiful pieces had been taken by thoughtless visitors.
Long Logs Loop walked us past hundreds of petrified wood chunks, as well as huge stone trees. The half-mile trail out to Agate House extended our walk to the petrified wood eight-room pueblo, thought to have been built between 1050 and 1300 A.D. but only occupied a short time because it had no accompanying kiva.

At Blue Mesa Loop the badlands bluffs rose high above surrounding grassy plateau land. "We don't have time for the walk down," said Andy. "The park closes at 5:00 p.m., and the mesa is already enveloped in shadows. I don't know whether 5:00 p.m. closing means clear out by 5 or no one is allowed in after 5," he added.
Newspaper Rock Overlook and Puerco Pueblo Trail preserved evidence of an ancient civilization that gathered native plants and farmed beans, squash and at least four varieties of corn along the ancient Puerco River. The civilization reached its peak around 1250, when the pueblo could have house 200 people in its single story 100 rooms. A small pueblo for about 18 families, it included petroglyphs pecked into the desert varnish resin on the sandstone. From high above we picked out an antelope, a crane, a human-like figure and concentric circles like a solar system. I guessed the two foot prints might have been done by more modern-time artists. But the movie at the Visitor Center included a clip of the 750-year old feet and identified the petroglyphs as some of the best in the world.

At Pintado Point we could just make out San Francisco Peak, 120 miles away.

Chinde Point in the Painted Desert burned red at sunset, but temperatures dropped dramatically. Just snapping pictures froze my fingers. The park ranger at Tiponi Point called out from his van window, "The park is closed." It was 5:12 p.m., and we were headed for the exit.

"We're on the way out," Andy answered politely.

"No stops," he demanded.
The sun disappeared as we approached the electronic gate. By the time we drove back to Holbrook, the temperatures had fallen to 37 degrees. Brrrrrrrrrr. It was winter here.