Road trip in Arizona

" On the road again..."
When I went to Arizona to visit my family there, we went exploring in the North Easter part of Arizona. Sheila and I had a great time!!! :-)


The first place we stopped was Tuzigoot which is a remnant of a Southersn Sinagua Village(built between 1125 and 1400). It is located in the Verde Valley and was originally a pueblo that was 2 stories high in places, with 77 groundfloor rooms. It is really cool looking, and it's the first indian ruin that I've seen.

Next stop was at Montezuma Well which is a hidden lake in the middle of the desert. The well is a limestone sink formed a long time ago by the collapse of an immense underground cavern. There is also a dwelling in the cliff that was built around 1100.(you'll see it in the picture)


40 Miles east of Flagstaff we stopped at The Meteor Crater. Here is the explaination of it...

With the force of a multi-megaton bomb, a speeding nickel-iron Meteorite crashed to Earth nearly 50 000 years ago. Splashing over 175 million tons of rock, the resulting Crater is 4150(1265m) feet in diameter, 550(167m) feet deep and 2,4(3,8km) miles in circumference. It was pretty weird to stand at the top and look down at that really big hole in the ground. Some famous movies about aliens have been filmed here.

Parts of our journey went on route 66.






We stopped in a town called Winslow. We went to see a 9/11 memorial there, called the Remembrance garden
These two steel beams from the world Trade Center
Entrusted to the citizens of Winslow by the City of New York
Along with this flag that was flown at the Pentagon;
The words "United we stand" remind the world that we will not fear terrorism

We also took a picture at the "Standing on the Corner" park. They have made a wall dedicaded to Eagles song

"Take It Easy"


Well, I'm running down the road
tryin' to loosen my load
I've got seven women on
my mind,
Four that wanna own me,
Two that wanna stone me,
One says she's a friend of mine
Take It easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels
drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
don't even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
and take it easy
Well, I'm a standing on a corner
in Winslow, Arizona
and such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed
Ford slowin' down to take a look at me
Come on, baby, don't say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is
gonna save me
We may lose and we may win though
we will never be here again
so open up, I'm climbin' in,
so take it easy
Well I'm running down the road trying to loosen
my load, got a world of trouble on my mind
lookin' for a lover who won't blow my
cover, she's so hard to find
Take it easy, take it easy
don't let the sound of your own
wheels make you crazy
come on baby, don't say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is
gonna save me, oh oh oh
Oh we got it easy
We oughta take it easy

The first night we slept in Holbrook. It was a frontier town in 1881 and it has been a frontier town ever since. In the 1930s through the 1950s, the "frontiersmen" were travelers of Route 66, known as The Mother Road and The Main Street of America.


Joe and Aggies cafe

In Holbrook we ate at a very traditional diner. I ordered fried chicken and mashed potaoes, and it was soooooooo GOOD!






We spent most of Friday at the Petrified Forest National Park.
This park has one of the world's largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood, multi-hued badlands of the Painted Desert, historic structures, archeological sites, and displays of 225 million year old fossils. It really is a surprising land of scenic wonders and fascinating science.

The Painted dessert










A petrified log in the Blue Mesa area









The Newspaper Rock has more than 650 images, that were pecked onto the rocks 650 to 2000 years ago. The great variety of petroglyphs on this Rock includes anthropomorphs(human like figures), zoomorphs(animal like figures), katsinas (spiritual figures). hand and tracks and geometrics.


Heavy rock in Crystal Forrest


Petrified tree




Tepee formation in the Petrified Forest National Park




















Petrified wood takes us back in time. These fossils are pieces of trees that lived in ancient ecosystems. Logs were buried in layers of sediment along a great river system, the silia graduaily replacing organic material. The rainbow of colors comes from trace minerals such as iron and manganese oxides. The think that the petrified wood found in Northeastern Arizona is from the Late Triassic over 200 million years ago. Petrified wood is the offical State Fossil of Arizona.




Yurt
After the Petrified forest we drove to Lyman Lake State Park. And we camped there in a yurt. Yurts are circular, lockable domed tents with a canvas shell, an open floor plan, and a skylight. It was very windy there and below 28 F (-2,2 C) at night...! We had brought a lot of warm cloths and a little space heater. We also had fun cooking-steak and potatoes... :-)




Petroglyphs at Lyman Lake
At Lyman Lake there are lots of petroglyphs.

I wonder what this person upside down means...?









New Mexico
Since we were so close to the Eastern border of Arizona we decided to drive over to New Mexico. I haven't been there before, so one more state for me!!!! :->

Salt River Canyon

On the way back to Phoenix we drove through the Salt River Canyon. They call it the mini Grand Canyon. It was very pretty there...