Petrified Forest and Painted Desert v. 15

Again, walking around in a land of giants.  The Petrified Forest was an accident of nature; another spectacular gem (pun intended :)) in the American West, that you must see to truly appreciate.  The trees are ancient pines that fell, probably rolled downhill into water, were stripped of limbs and bark as they rolled, and were covered by sediment.   Since they were buried, instead of rotting, the water in the trees was replaced by minerals which hardened into rock.  These trees look like wood on the outside but they are as heavy as rock!  The minerals grace the cross section of the logs with spectacular color.

A word about the Junior Ranger program- or as one Ranger put it- the Not so  "Junior" Ranger program.  Excellent.  Each National Park we have visited has a booklet for the 12 and under set (and most have modified or separate books for younger ages) that directs them to information in the park to help them understand why it is important.  They read Visitor Center displays, "ask a Ranger", make observations, interpret, and draw conclusions.  They participate in a Ranger talk or program.  Sometimes they pick up litter or recycle things.  When they finish the book, a Ranger goes over it with them, asks them questions to be sure they understand and "swears them in" as a Junior Ranger.  They get a badge and can buy a patch for a dollar.  This program educates the whole family- I've sure learned a lot!

Becca hugged a log to estimate its size.

This is the biggest log in the park- named "Old Faithful".

The Painted Desert is vast and spectacular.  Our favorite part was "Newspaper Rock", actually a collection of rocks with petroglyphs all over them.  Looked like a bulletin board for early American people.  They don't let visitors get close anymore since rock slides have made the trail unsafe (or they don't want people messing with the petroglyphs).  We pulled out the old 35mm and used the big zoom lens to get these images.  Becca took these photos.  As I was coming back from the RV with the camera, she was instructing a family as to how to use the big binoculars provided at the viewing platform, and where the best group of drawings could be found.  Junior Ranger at work...

Sadly, we missed the meteor crater along I 40.  It is just a big hole, but it is a very cool and enormous hole! (I've seen it- it's huge).  But we had to get to a campground where we could watch the Home Run Derby!  Becca chose to skip the crater to watch Prince become Home Run King.