RETIREMENT TRIP #6

   NATURE'S PAINTINGS
                             September 2015                                  





In the early morning sun, the desert at Pintado Point
looks rich and alive.

The morning dawned fiery red across the eastern sky. "We must be right on the edge of a weather front," said Andy.

But back in the Petrified Forest National Park by 8 a.m., we cruised along under gorgeous mid-70- degree blue skies. Clouds painted swaths of cotton-white accent puffs. At Pintado Point an artist daubed oils on canvas. He said, "I don't know where it's going, but I can't resist the opportunity," when I admired his creation.

Flowers surrounded the stone-lined pullout at Nizhoni Point. The blooms attracted huge wasps. One stopped long enough for a close-up. And the flowers added color to an already colorful landscape.

A wasp alights on a fall blossom
at Nizhoni Point.

Andy poses before the remains of vehicular travel on Route 66.

Whipple Point gave us another magnificent panorama of color as the morning sun painted shadows.
Andy read the interpretive sign as I photographed from Lacey Point pull-out.  He explained that the pull-out was named in the early 1900's for Senator Lacey of Iowa, who was instrumental in formulating the Antiquities Act and getting it through Congress. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act, and leaders ever since have used it to protect lands all over the country. Lacey Point honors the invaluable contribution of one conservation-conscious Senator. Since "land of scientific importance" covers a broad range, the Antiquities Act has been broadly applied.

Sue sits comfortably atop the
grillwork of an old Route 66 vehicle.

"Do you remember this?" asked Andy, as we pulled into the Route 66 remembrance pull-out. When we were here five years ago, the weather was abominable--whipping wind, lashing rain and bitter cold. The area honored the memory of Route 66, the American highway, that ran through here before the age of Interstates like Route #40.

Remains of the indigenous village of Rio Puerco showed the culture of the ancestral kachina settlers.

Petroglyphs provide an ancient
newspaper in stone.

One petroglyph visible from the observation point marked the summer solstice. The spiral was in direct line with the sun in the morning at 9 a.m. on June 21. We saw it in shadow at 9:15 a.m. on September 10, but the spiral was clearly visible in the shadow of the rock.

Nearby we could see the evidence of the recent rain. The dry wash flowed gently with muddy water, but the rain triggered desert bloom everywhere.

At Newspaper Rock the interpretive sign explained that petroglyphs are images chipped on a rock surface. Pictures are created by removing the natural black patina to expose the light-colored rock underneath. Telescopes allowed us to focus on hundreds of patterns and figures left behind by the ancient pueblo peoples.

The Tepees rise like giant tents
from the mud flats.

Petrified logs dot the landscape of the ancient sea bed
that today is the Petrified Forest National Park.

At the Tepees I read that the dry mud formations had once been part of a huge river system that carved the landscape.  The Chinde system scoured the land and left behind deep gorges and mud domes.

A huge raven waits for a handout
at the Blue Mesa pull-out.

Blue Mesa Overlook, already hot by 10 a.m., gave us the first glimpses of petrified logs. It was easy to see how weathering had slowly uncovered the ancient trunks, and as they were unearthed, they tumbled down the slopes to the valley floor. A raven watched us photograph, undoubtedly wishing for a meal.

Blue Mesa Trail, a mile loop down into the badlands, offered a strenuous mid-morning workout.

A steep trail leads us into the
heart of the badlands at Blue Mesa.

"You collapsed on this trail in 2004," Andy reminded me, "but that was immediately after your surgery before the mule ride into the Grand Canyon." 

No collapsing today, but it was definitely hot.


Petrified logs collect in all the run-offs beneath Blue Mesa.



The trail provided unusual perspectives of the steep slopes and petrified rubble that had tumbled from the Blue Mesa layer near the top.  Close up we saw pebbles of so many different sizes cemented together in the conglomerate. The sign explained that was evidence of a fast-moving stream that carried the stones at such speed they couldn't be sorted.  Then they were all suddenly dumped at once and roughly compacted.  It was an interesting lesson for me in how geologists read and interpret history.

All petrified, the rubble of
the ages collects
at the bottom of the gulley.

Agate Bridge, a giant petrified log, was shored up with concrete in 1917. The concrete looked more weathered than the exposed log above it. We followed another short trail out to the far edge of the mesa rim.  About 11 a.m. the temperatures had already reached the 90's.

With petrification, the living cells are
replaced by crystals
that turn to jasper and agate.

In 1906, John Muir recorded information about Jasper Forest. By 1917, tourists recognized this spot as having one of the largest collections of petrified wood anywhere in the world. Today we have to be content with collecting the visual images. Thank goodness the remnants far below us are protected.  Gorgeous chunks and slabs of petrified wood are just too tempting!
"And whose bright idea was it to do this?" I asked, trudging along after Andy at almost noon.  He had chosen a mile-long newly established trail into the wilderness.  We parked next to Dry Wash Bridge as directed and followed the main wash under the bridge into the badlands.  That was the easy part.

Martha's Butte marks the extent of our misadventure along
Dry Wash into the badlands.

Damp patches indicated recent rain, but our only sign of trail was a couple cairns and some footprints in the sand.  Admitting this was beautiful country, I turned around several times to admire the scenery and check out the return perspective.  The sun beat down, and it was HOT!  This was an easy place to get disoriented and seriously lost.  I thought about stopping, but when he asked if I had had enough, the butte seemed close.  The blurb said a significant petroglyph could be seen there.  Beyond was a large petrified tree, according to the information pamphlet.  Just as we identified the tree, Andy slipped on the crumbled basalt.  We gave up the search, applied necessary medical care and headed back in the general direction of civilization. It was most certainly bushwhacking.
Giant Logs Trail circled the Rainbow Forest Museum and Visitor Center.  Elderly tourists congregated in the shade of the portico right outside the museum or walked out to see the nearest giant petrified log.  We followed every path in and out between the huge tumbled trunks and chunks.

At Giant Logs viewpoint, we meander through the largest
collection of petrified wood in one place in the world.

"What I thought was most interesting about the video," said Andy, after we had watched the short informative show, "was that this area was equivalent to Panama latitudinally today when the world was one giant continent 225 million years ago."
I like looking at the colors.
"It's amazing to me how an area can be so beautiful and so cruelly desolate at the same time," said Andy, as we walked the three-quarter mile trail at Crystal Forest. It was the busiest stop of the whole day, but most people only walked to the first sheltered overlook about 300 feet from the parking area.  From there on we had a forest of fallen trees crystalized with agate and jasper and other semi-precious stones mostly to ourselves.  We sat for a few minutes to take in the expanse of land and sky--a scene to inhale and remember.