After our visit to the Cliff palace in Mesa Verde N.P. we return to Cortez, CO and find Hwy-160/491 West again to bring us South to the Four Corners Monument. The road to there is pretty dull, lots of barren land, and the small towns along the way are just specks on a landscape. We arrive at the site, pay our entry fee and am a little bit disappointed by the "poor" condition the site is. Perhaps that's the way the Navajo Nation wants it to be, but I would have liked it a little bit more "polished" as it marks the meeting point of four states i.e. New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.
Four Corners Monument
Anyway, we stood in Four States at the same time, got our picture and continue our way to Gallup, NM for our next destination. We drive a little on historic Route 66 in Gallup to reach our pillows for tonight and are happy that it is not a camp site as we have some showers coming down. For dinner we return back to Route 66 and find the Hotel/Motel "El Rancho". This historic place was home for movie actors like John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Ronal Reagan, Katherine Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn, and many others when on filming location here in the West. It is a real treat for anyone remembering the old movies like Streets of Laredo, The Hallelujah Trail, Fort Defiance, Sundown, The Bad Man, and many others. A real cool place to hang around and drift back in time.
The Duke, ... no words needed
After a restful night in Gallup, NM we get up to a cloudy sky with very pleasant temperatures. This suits us very well, as our destination for today is the Petrified Forest Nat'l Park, and there is no shade again. We find our way out of Gallup on Rt-66 and hit the I-40 West for the quickest way to the park. Along the way there are many billboards advertising the Navajo Indian Arts and Crafts, and we stop at some to just have a look. Even thought claimed to be authentic, at many items I have my doubts and a "Made in China" sticker occasionally confirms it. Anyways, everybody has to make a living, and the Natives too.
Navajo Arts and Crafts for sale
We reach the Petrified Forest N.P. relatively early, and there are still some clouds in the sky, but the mercury is already on the climb.
Visitor Center and View of the Mesa (Painted Desert)
Route 66 Point, which once crossed the Park
The park is amazing! The petrified trees originated about 213 million years ago, when there was a subtropical floodplain with giant conifer forests. During this Triassic Period, the trees falling into river systems were buried by mud, silt, and volcanic ash. Minerals from the groundwater replaced the wood's organic material, cell by cell with quartz, forming the iconic petrified wood. The uplift of the Colorado Plateau and subsequent erosion exposed the petrified logs and formed the landscape of the Painted Desert we see today. We spend most of the day in the park enjoying the tree logs, their colours and structures, and the vast landscape.
Puerco Pueblo
Another Newspaper Rock(s)
The Blue Mesa
Jasper Forest
Agate Bridge
Jasper and Crystal Forest
Incredible Details 213 million years old
It is already late afternoon when we finally find our way on to Hwy-180 to St. Johns, AZ to turn onto SR-61 which brings us through the Zuni and Ramah Navajo Indian Reservations back onto I-40 to Albuquerque, NM. As yesterday, a late afternoon thunderstorm is brewing over the plateau and provides some spectacular colours to the landscape. What a nice ending to a very nice day.
Somewhere in the Zuni or Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation
"Nowhere else has so large and beautiful and in every way wonderful [a} section of the ancient ... forests been discovered, and after it is cared for by the Nation and made easily accessible, it will, I am sure, become one of the most attractive and famous places in all our Western Wonderland." John Muir, 1838-1914, Scottish-American naturalist, author, and conservationist, September 12, 1906
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