taychellewis May 9, 2018
The sun started shining at around 4:30 this morning. People started leaving the campsite around 4:00. More sleep was hopeless, so up we got and headed for Petrified Forest National Park!
Petrified Forest is split into two sections: North and South. We entered through the North section and made our way down, stopping at points of interest along the way. The first area was the Painted Desert, which covers the entirety of the Park.
We walked a 1-mile loop trail into Blue Mesa, with more painted hills and petrified logs throughout. It was getting pretty toasty, but rewarding to get off the driving path! However, Asians followed us and made the peaceful views less peaceful with them roaming off the path and touching the petrified wood for pictures.
After lunch we decided to take a walk we’d read about in a Secrets of the National Parks book toward Martha’s Butte. It was about 94 degrees as we followed a dried up riverbed in the general direction of this butte, so we were grateful when it started looking bigger than just a hill on the horizon. Unfortunately there was no shade to reward us when we got there, but we had still accomplished something… I think…
Last stop: Giant Logs Trail, full of petrified logs. Can’t say this was the most interesting part of our day, but as we were in Petrified Forest National Park, we felt obligated to stop and take a look.
Tonight we showered and headed back to our Grand Canyon campsite, and we even got Oreos and milk for a treat! We sat with our camping neighbors from Texas and talked for a while by the fire. (We were feeling unusually friendly.) Fun night!
