Day 14: Thursday 8-Jul-1999
Base camp: Holbrook, Arizona
Excursion: Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Distance: 80 mi (128 km)
We had now adjusted our clocks to local time. We got up early to get ready for our day trip out to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest, some 20 miles east of here. We left the campground around 7:15 and got to the visitor's center of the Painted Desert by 7:45. We attended a 20 minute presentation at 8 about the national park. We then headed out. The park is quite big and is accessible by road, with a few hiking trails leaving the main road.
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| Painted Desert, Arizona. |
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| More incredible colors from the Painted Desert. On the side, you can see a petrified tree (looks like rocks) |
The silence here in the desert is noticeable. If we asked the kids to be quiet, we could not hear a thing. In this place, we are quite far away from any habitation. We are also quite a bit below the level of the Interstate, which is at least several miles away to the south.
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| A petrified log on the backdrop of white and blue clay |
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| Several chunks of petrified logs. 225 million years old. They look very real, but they are made of rock! |
All in all this trip was definitely worth it. As for temperature, in the morning it was almost a bit chilly. As we were wrapping up our last hike around 1pm, it was very hot. We did well starting early. By the time we got back we had a quite late lunch in the trailer and then got ready to go out into the pool. As with yesterday, it started to rain. The temperature dropped quickly and the wind made it chilly to be outside. Curious, we had expected it to be steaming hot in Arizona!
In the late afternoon we took advantage of the cookout offered nightly at the campground. It was nice. The kids had hot dogs. Lillemor had BBQ:d chicken and Per had a chilli burger. Yum. We were once again surprised at how cold it got in the evening, especially with the wind.