Petrified Forest & Painted Desert National Park

Hello Everyone,

We started heading home on December 31st from Cottonwood, Arizona. We drove 200+ miles to the Petrified Forest & Painted Desert National Park in Northeastern Arizona.

There was a large piece of petrified wood right there by the entrance so Dad and I posed for a picture before we went to the visitor's center.

We drove to the visitor's center and there we experienced a real surprise. The park rangers made me a "Bark Ranger". They gave me a certificate, a guide, and paid me with puppy biscuits to go out a help people enjoy the wonders of the park. 

We left to start exploring the Painted Desert part of the park. Our first stop was at Tiponi Point, our first look at the Painted Desert.

 The next stop was at Tawa Point.

Then we decided to take a hike on the Painted Desert Rim Trail.

We stopped at the Agate Bridge, a huge 110-foot tree that fell across a gully some 200 million years ago, where it remained until it became stone. It began to deteriorate, so park rangers kept it from falling into pieces by building a concrete base beneath it.

Lastly, we explored the Crystal Forest, one of the largest collections of petrified logs in the world.

After we left the national park, we drove another 100+ miles to Gallup, New Mexico, arriving just at dark.

Tomorrow we are continuing East and plan to explore Blue Lake State Park, in New Mexico😃.

Sedona & Cottonwood Arizona

Hi Everyone,

On Sunday, Dec. 29th we drove back to Sedona, AZ with the intention of hiking on the Cathedral Rock trail, but there were no parking spots left and more signage threatening to tow any vehicle foolish enough to park on the street or road near the designated parking area. 

So we drove on a little further to the Chapel of the Holy Cross. This is a Catholic Chapel designed by a former student of Frank Loyd Wright on the slope of the red rock canyon Southeast of Sedona.

The interior was very beautiful as one would expect.

Mom and Dad and I enjoyed our chance to explore the Chapel and the grounds around it.

Outside there is a circular ramp that rises up to the Chapel from the road below. 

On Monday, Dec. 30th we drove back to Bubbling Springs Fish Hatchery in Page Springs, AZ. We were blessed with a visit from a Great Blue Heron who seems to have taken up residence at the hatchery.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Petrified Forest National Park in Northeastern Arizona, after which we will be starting our trek home to Rochester😀.

Merry Christmas to all !

Hello Everyone,

It's Christmas, best wishes to everyone! Well, the weather in Arizona is wintery, translation, it is raining, which we are told is typical for the area during the winter months. Most of the hiking trails consist of red rock and red sand, which becomes slippery red rock and red muck when it is wet. So we drove to a scenic area near Sedona and saw Cathedral Rock from the roadside instead of hiking to it in the steady rain.

The Red Rock Canyon area around Sedona is just beautiful to behold and well worth the effort to explore it by car or on foot.

On Thursday, Dec. 26th we drove South of Cottonwood to the area around Prescott, AZ to explore two more National Monuments. The first one is called Montezuma Well, a sink-hole in the desert with a natural spring that has been there for centuries and continues to flow today.

The well provided much-needed water for the Sinaqua Indians for centuries and they built pueblos and cliff dwellings in and around the well, some of which still exist for people to explore.

These dwellings which were built between 1100 and 1400 are built right into the steep sides of the sink-hole which houses the natural springs that create the well.

 From there we drove a few miles further to the second National Monument called Montezuma Castle, one of the best-preserved cliff dwelling in the Southwest.

This 900-year-old structure is built into the cliff-side, high above the river valley below where many more stone structures or their remains are still visible to travelers.

Huge oak trees thrive alongside willows and numerous types of pines near the river's edge. 

It began to rain again and continued for the remainder of the day. We didn't have snow like we were expecting but it grew cold as the rain continued. The mountains around Cottonwood did, however, receive snow, which accumulated to several inches.

On Friday, Dec. 27th it was cold and rainy when we awoke so we only walked briefly around the city of Cottonwood's County Campus a few blocks away from where we are staying. There is a very nice memorial military park there with tributes to each branch of our armed services and the K-9 service dogs who have given their lives in aid to our combat troops in times of war.

There is even a memorial to the women who helped win World War II by working long hours and making sacrifices to help the war effort by producing the materials of war in the defense plants from 1942 to 1945.

Alas, Mom, Dad, and I are all growing weary of our travels. We have been on the road now for almost seven months, traveled over 21,000 miles, visited 20 states, explored 21 national parks, 20 national monuments, 14 national forests, 6 national wildlife preserves, 34 state parks, dozens of municipal parks, and 3 tribal parks.

We are considering returning to our home in Rochester to see our family and friends, whom we miss dearly, and continuing the rest of our Great Adventure at a later time 😐.

Around Cottonwood, Arizona

Hi Everyone,

On Monday, Dec. 23rd we drove a short distance to the Dead Horse Ranch State Park just outside of Cottonwood Arizona. There we found three man-made lagoons that attract migratory birds and waterfowl and many hiking trails to explore. We walked around all three lagoons where we found numerous ducks and several varieties of songbirds.

 There were Mallards, Ring-necks, and Coots paddling around the ponds.

 

It was great fun watching the ducks diving for goodies at the bottom of the pond.

The highlight of our hike culminated with the discovery of a pair of Bald Eagles on a tree just off the path around the middle lagoon on our way back to our car in the parking lot.

After that, we drove a few miles further to Tuzigoot National Monument where we could explore the ruins of an ancient civilization that inhabited the river valley for several centuries. This hill-top pueblo was built over a long period of time from about 1125 to the 1400s. All that remains today are outlines of the buildings that once held the inhabitants of this community of farmers and hunter-gatherers.

The settlement had approximately 110 rooms and an estimated population of several hundred people who once inhabited the hill-top pueblo.

 No one knows for sure why the village was abandoned in the 1400s, long before the Spaniards arrived nearly 100 years later.

On Tuesday, Dec. 24th we awoke to a steady rainstorm that lasted all day and into the night. Since we couldn't do any hiking we stayed home and did some more long-range planning for the next part of our "Great Adventure".

Tomorrow is Christmas and the weather is supposed to remain wet with the possibility of snow. So we might have a White Christmas😃.

Page Springs & Fay Canyon

Hello Everyone,

On Saturday, Dec. 21st we went a few miles up route 89A to Page Springs, Arizona where we explored the Fish Hatchery and its hiking trails. There was a very modern facility on the grounds where Arizona Fish and Wildlife hatch and raise native fish until they can be released into waterways within the state.

There were several hundred mature Brown Trout in an outside pond. If you look closely you can see them just under the surface.

We also went to the other side of Oak Creek to do some exploring and hiking in the Bubbling Ponds Preserve, one of many places migratory birds pass through on their way to Winter Quarters in Mexico.

 There we several types of ducks in residence in nearly all of the ponds and a few other types of waterfowl.

One species, in particular, caught our attention as he searched for his lunch along the edge of the pond around lunch-time.

On Sunday, Dec. 22nd we drove back to Sedona and continued onto the Dry Creek Road to find the trailhead for Fay Canyon.

It was a very nice trail through pine forest, past a dry creek bed and up into the side canyon to see an arch on the cliffside.

The arch required a steep climb up a side trail across a dry creek bed and up a cliffside that had a vertical rise of over 250 feet.

You can just see daylight through the arch in the next photograph.

There were several interesting geological features along the trail that we enjoyed exploring as we hiked along.

Tomorrow we are going to do some more exploring in the area around Cottonwood and Sedona😁.