Petroglyphs in Petrified Forest, AZ 9/26

This petroblyph was located in the Painted Desert Inn Museum. It is about 2 1/2 feet high by about 3 1/2 feet wide. This cat reminded me of Halloween ...

Some of thesepetroglyphs are considered to be over 1700 years old. Isn't that amazing? I certainly found them very interesting.

I'm not sure exactly what this is ... but it was certainly different than any of the rocks or petroglyphs.

Flagstaff, AZ - 9/25

This is one of Carolyn's favorite museums. It is called the Museum of Northern Arizona located in Flagstaff.

Carolyn actually purchased herself a new ring in this gift shop. I'm so proud of her, now if she'll just wear it!

Petrified Forest - 9/26

Yes, we're having fun. This park was very interesting. These tree/rocks were really amazing. As you go through these pictures you will notice some holes in the tree/rocks. These are where crystals once resided. Tourists have removed them over the years and there are very few left. The park estimates that there are 1 ton of rock removed from the park every month.

This tree/rock is a 7 out of 10 on the scale of weight for rocks. Very dense.

The next three pictures are of the "Old Faithful" of the Petrified Forest. It is said that this tree/rock weighs 44 tons. Pictures don't reflect just how big this thing is, there was a special walk put around it. The root ball I would guess to be about 10 in diameter.

See the hole, 1 crystal gone. Aren't the colors stunning?

Check out the blue on the right, below the red and above the yellow. The colors were quite stricking.

This isn't even "old faithful" but really big.

The colors were so deep ...

This grass was so lacy. Really beautiful stuff.

I've had so many pictures of this type of yellow flower. It is the first time I have seen this plant in this stage, kind of like a dandilion.

Isn't this pretty? Its center kind of reminds me of a rose ... I'm sure its not ... I just don't know what it is.

Painted Desert Inn ~ AZ

This building was completed in 1920 by Herbert Lore. He actually used petrified wood in some of its masonry walls. There was no water and it was hauled from Adamana, ten miles south on the Puerco River. The original structure was sold to the government in the 1930s. The CCC came in and restructured the building in the adobe fashion as seen here.

This is a skylight in the building. These panels were hand painted by 2 CCC workers.

Fred Kabotie, a renowned Hopi Artist, was hired to paint murals on the dining room and lunchroom walls. The scenes are glimpses into Hopi culture: the Buffalo Dance, a trek to a sacred salt lake, planting time, and a sun face.

These were the chairs used in the dining rooms. Many of them were damaged, the center half circle was broken off. As you will notice in the second picture, I think it was used a lot more than this one.

Painted Desert Landscape ~ 9/26

We arrived in the park around 11AM. The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest are considered the same park. There is one 28 mile road that goes through the park end-to-end. The Painted Desert is the North end of the park. It reminded me a lot of the Bad Lands.

This stuff went as far as the eye could see.

This one is for Robin

This little guy was in one of the court yards at Tlaquepaque. He was so cute, I would have like to take him home ...

Sedona - Back Roads

Well, it was about 9AM when we left Flagstaff to go the 28 miles to Sedona. Carolyn had had her coffee and was talking endlessly about the Wells Fargo Bank event when she tried to cash travelers checks and the teller didn't have a clue as how to handle it and I was listening intently. It was pretty bad, the gal was clueless and I'm being kind.

So in that light, I missed the turnoff on route 89Alt. We were headed to Phoenix. It took me about 10 minutes to realize my over site, commonly known as a mistake. I took the next exit and it happened to be Schnebly Road. You ask, who is Schnebly? He was one of the first settlers who got the original post office and named the city Sedona. I guess Schnebly was just too long and saying the word Schnebly just doesn't have the same ring as Sedona.

We pulled out our 5 or 6 maps, viewed the GPS and started looking, it was going to be closer, not necessarily faster to take the road. As we turned onto the road there was a big warning sign that indicated this road was for only trucks and all terrain vehicles. For those of you that don't know, I now have a Santa Fe, that has a high under carriage. So, we started, I ensured Carolyn that we could always turn around if it got too bad.

We started, is probably took us 2 hours to go the 12 miles. Oh but the views, it was just amazing. For most of the road I went under 10 miles per hour and that's no joke. We were all over the road as I constantly had to find the least path of Resistance. OK, it got pretty bad, I'll admit. I have never driven on anything worse. It was GREAT! We are both so glad we did it. The views of the red rock were magnificent.

Just a note, there were a couple of cars (Taurus & a Van as examples) on this road. All kidding aside, these people were crazy ... I wonder if they made it out.

As we got closer to Sedona, we started seeing the "Pink Jeeps & Hummer" tourist rides on the road. We laughed, they payed a minimum of $60 each, it cost us a gallon of gas, maybe, and we had full control. We loved it, we agreed that we created another great memory.

When we got into town, we hit main street. Carolyn had been here 20 years ago and was surprised/disappointed about how touristy it has become. Tons of people and lots of tourist shops. Well, we did buy some 'stuff' of course.

We then went to Tlaquepaque Center. It is an area built like a Mexican shopping area. WAY COOL. Shops were of varying degrees. I found one that had a beautiful purse. Price $2659.00. Don't worry Fred, I didn't buy it. It wasn't 'that' special.

This is Carolyn having her ice cream under the arch at Tlaquepaque.

This was taken from the car. The red color once again does not even begin to reflect the real view.

And these are the good parts of the road! It only got worse as we went over the 12 miles of rock road, meant for only trucks & all terrain vehicles.

These looked like silk so I had to touch, they were REAL. These were in a pot at Tlaquepaque.

The field at the top of the road were filled with these yellow beauties.