First, however, our drive took us through Winslow, Arizona. Sound familiar to any of you Boomers out there? "Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona" was made famous by the Eagles back in the 70's. We stopped there for coffee and a t-shirt, than took a few shots of the statue placed there to commemorate the song. The town is on the historic Rt 66, but appears to have been left behind when I-40 was built.
Back to Petrified Forest- petrified wood was formed when trees were buried, many years ago, by silt, volcanic ash, and mud. The lack of oxygen kept the trees from decaying, and the silica in the water seeped into the tree tissue, which eventually crystallized into quartz. Different minerals added colors- yellow, red, blue, brown, pink- which can be very beautiful. I had been here many years ago and confess I was not terribly impressed. However, learning more about the process and really LOOKING at the wood was a new experience. Dale was very surprised at the quantity of wood lying around. The ranger indicated that only a very small number of the trees that died in the then-tropical forest actually went through the petrification process, but it was still impressive. Dale was so impressed that we drove back west by several miles to purchase a piece of wood for our yard, so Sun City folks can check it out when we return. (Many pieces are stolen from the park every year. The fines for doing so are pretty high, rightfully so. It is not very expensive to legally purchase even a large piece, so it is difficult to understand the thieves...) In addition to petrified wood, many fossils have been found in the area.
The other part of the park was the Painted Desert. This area consists of mounds of sandstone, layered with different colors of soil, depending on the minerals in the soil. As a whole, the mounds are quite beautiful with the layers of purple, red, grays, and blues.
Four hours later, we headed on our way to Colorado and Mesa Verde.
No comments:
Post a Comment