Arizona 2020

Route 66, Meteor Crater National Landmark, Walnut Canyon National Monument, and Petrified Forest National Park

This was a birthday trip where I checked off more bucket list locations: Petrified Forest National Park and Route 66. I have a thing for the National Parks and the Petrified Forest has always fascinated me. We started off this trip by going to the border of Arizona and California where we cruised along historic Route 66, stopped at Meteor Crater and Walnut Canyon, and ultimately finding our way to Petrified Forest National Park.

Along Route 66, we made a quick stop at the replica of the London Bridge.

We also made a quick stop at a road side replica of an Old West town where I goofed off in the Arizona Territorial Jail.

We passed through an area where there were wild donkeys roaming everywhere. They seemed very accustomed to people because they would approach the car if we slowed down or stopped.

Meteor Crater National Landmark was really interesting. It was surprising to learn that it is privately owned. The crater is enormous and puts into perspective the speed at which space rocks enter our atmosphere.

Walnut Canyon National Monument was an impromptu stop along the way. I saw a sign for it and decided to check it out. I’m so glad I did because it’s almost tied with the Petrified Forest for my favorite stop on this trip.

Inside the canyon, there is a well preserved ancient cliff dwellings. The landscape is harsh and it’s hard to believe that people made homes in the sides of the cliff.

Look below at how low the ceilings are in the dwellings. For reference, I'm only 5'4".

The trail was slightly difficult due to all stairs but the canyon view was well worth it.

 The Petrified Forest National Park was awesome. It is one of the world’s largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood.

The park also contains portions of the Painted Desert. The vast majority of the park can be seen by car so it is accessible to most people.

Learning that there was once a thick and vibrant forest (about 225 million years ago), in what is now a desert, is mind blowing. I could’ve taken millions of pictures of these petrified trees. It is very tempting to take a small fragment as a souvenir, but I’m superstitious, and the rocks are supposedly cursed so I refrained. Just look at how pretty they are!

We made the long walk to see Agate House where we saw a structure built entirely out of the petrified wood.

Near Agate House, I made a friend, Larry, who let me photograph him:

The thing about the Petrified Forest that I found so interesting was that even though the current climate is hot and dry, there was once a thick and vast forest, full of a completely different set of animals.

According to the National Park Service, this is how paleontologists describe the area we now call the Petrified Forest:

"Imagine a large river basin with numerous rivers and streams flowing through the lowland. Galleries of trees, ferns, and giant horsetails grow abundantly along the waterway, providing food and shelter for many insects, reptiles, amphibians, and other creatures. In the slightly dryer areas a short distance from the water there are cycads, ginkgoes, and coniferous trees towering almost two-hundred feet into the sky. If you can picture such a river basin, then you can imagine Petrified Forest's environment over 200 million years ago.

During the Triassic, the climate was very different from that of today. Located near the equator about where Costa Rica is now, this region was humid and tropical. The landscape was dominated by a river system larger than anything on Earth today. Giant reptiles, amphibians, early dinosaurs, fish, and many invertebrates lived among the dense vegetation and in the winding waterways."

It boggles the imagination that this area in Arizona had a large river system when it now looks like this:

10/10 I recommend Petrified Forest National Park to everyone. Everything we did on this trip, aside from Walnut Canyon was mostly drivable; people of any activity level can enjoy the same literary. This birthday trip was a success and Arizona seems to have an unlimited amount of things to see. We plan on going back to check out more of Arizona in the future.