We had a restful night despite Michele mistakenly waking Rob up an hour early, thinking his alarm did not go off on time. Her iPad was on airplane mode and had not changed to Mountain Time. We departed Santa Rosa at 8:35am. It was 54 degrees with sunny skies and wispy clouds.
On the road, Rob commented, "That is one straight road."
Around 9:15am after 42 miles, we stopped early at a gas station, the Flying C Ranch, snookered by all of their billboards along the way advertising their gifts and souvenirs. The women's bathroom was being cleaned by a kind lady who shared with Michele various spots to sight see at White Sands when we get there. Rob said the men's bathroom was not the same clean experience at all, they had spent all their money on billboards instead.
We drove through Albuquerque an hour later, a culture shock of highways and traffic compared to tiny Santa Rosa from last night. Michele thought about her favorite show Breaking Bad, fictionally based in Albuquerque, as we drove through.
We started to see more scenery and Rob commented that we were surrounded by what looked like a curtain of mesas.
For lunch around 12:40pm we stopped at a Pizza Edge in Gallup, NM. It was well rated for excellent food and a clean environment. Both were true. We shared a small veggie pizza.
Back on the road, we enjoyed scenery and crossed into Arizona at 1:30pm.
Michele was watching the mileage signs and noticed that The Petrified Forest National Park wasn't too far away. We have a National Parks Passport book that we stamp at the parks and monuments and thought it would be wise to check it out. Rob said he's driven by on motorcycle trips once or twice but never visited.
More than 13,000 years of human history and culture are represented at the park, as well as fossils from 200 million years ago in the Triassic Period. The park has a 28 mile drive with many overlooks and stops to view the scenery. We were immediately rewarded with The Painted Desert, which we've seen on our visits to The Grand Canyon.
These rocks show petroglyphs from ancestral Puebloan people living in the area 650 to 2,000 years ago. The viewing area is above what looks like a bunch of big rocks in a rubble. Focusing at the front corner, to the right of the edge at the bottom are many carvings.
At another stop this bold raven trotted over to the shade of the parked Mazda and wasn't at all bothered by us.
Exposed at Petrified Forest is one of the most continuous sections of
Triassic-aged rocks anywhere in the world. The rocks were deposited by
enormous rivers between 208 and 228 million years ago and include diverse fossils. The views were otherworldly. The rocks look like cement close up and vary in color depending on the light: gray, blue, purple, green and brown.
We stopped at the Blue Mesa, which is a 4 mile loop drive, plus a 1-mile loop hike, viewing a large area of mudstone and sandstone that is 200-225 million years old. We opted to immerse ourselves in the rock formations in the hopes of seeing the petrified portion of the park.
Michele found a little friend scampering across the sidewalk onto the rocks, where it quickly blended right in.
The petrified wood in the park is entirely made of quartz. When ancient trees died, they washed into an ancient river system and formed log jams and buried sediment. Minerals absorbed into the porous wood over hundreds and thousands of years crystallized within the cellular structure, replacing the organic material as it broke down over time. Within hollows or cracks in the logs, crystals of quartz, amethyst, and citrine formed.
Rob commented that from what we could see, the park was mostly beautiful views and landscapes with a scattering of petrified wood. Perhaps much of it was stolen before the park was officially formed in 1962, as we saw a very large petrified wood store just outside the park!
Back in the car, we continued west towards our hotel. Given we had 2 more hours to go, we decided to have dinner in Flagstaff at an eatery called Wildflower. Just 30 more minutes west, we arrived at our hotel in Williams, AZ at 7:20 pm.
Total mileage today was 507 miles, including our detour through the Petrified Forest National Park. Rob says he got the best mileage so far with just over 40 mpg. Top elevation was about 7,000 feet.
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