Petrified…Petroglyph…Painted

Finally, I have a moment to catch up on parts of our trip before our brief interlude in Springfield Missouri. After we visited The Grand Canyon’s North Rim and the Virmillion Cliffs we drove to a small town in east Arizona on Highway 40 (the old Route 66 at that point) by the name of Holbrook. Our original intent had been to spend the evening in Flagstaff. However, a slight diversion in search of petrified dinosaur tracks—which were supposed to be just a couple of miles off of our route to Flagstaff—took us instead quite a distance into the Hopi Indian Reservation.

As we drove along Arizona Highway 160, we saw a home made sign that said “Dino Tracks” and turned down the potted and pocked dirt road. Bob was convinced that this must be a ruse. And I have to admit it did look rather sophomoric for something that ought to be so amazing. So, we backed out of this road and carried on a bit further east only to find ourselves at the town of Tuba City…much beyond the mapped location of the Dino Tracks, which in retrospect must have been at the location of that dopey sign.

Not wanting to backtrack, we decided to bag our plans to find the Dino Tracks and to stay the night in Flagstaff and rather decided to carry on through not only the Hopi Indian Reservation, but also the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation…a route that would ultimately take us to Holbrook, a little town just on the edge of the Petrified Forest National Park.

After our drive through both reservations where we were treated to incredibly beautiful plains and plateaus (and a very sad perspective of amazingly poor folks) we spent an uneventful evening in Holbrook. By 9 AM the next morning we entered the Petrified Forest National Park via the south entrance from Highway 180. Among the cool things about this National Park is that it is two parks in one since the petrified trees are located within a part of the Painted Desert. Not only that an ancient town by the name of Puerco Pueblo is also contained within this park. Puerco Pueblo was known to be occupied from 1100-1200 and from 1300-1400. In addition to being able to see a portion of the structures of this old village, very near to there are ancient petroglyphs.

It was very cool to see the ENORMOUS trees which had been petrified. Having never seen them myself before this time, I didn’t know what to expect. Now I know that these trees are not standing…duh. Rather, they are lying down in spots where they were left after raging waters transported them from lands far, far away. During their rough, watery journey these trees (which were originally hundreds of feet tall and as large as 9 feet in diameter) lost their limbs and now lay in quiet repose. Most of these trees were still very long (60+ feet), except that over time as the ground underneath them settled and the support beneath them gave way, being brittle, they would break into sections from 2 feet to 10 feet long…but still all in their original location vis-à-vis the entire tree. On many of these trees we were able to see the age rings of the trees because each of the rings had absorbed different minerals…very cool.

We didn’t take as long as we could have exploring this National Forest, but we got a really nice exposure to the petrified woods, the petroglyphs and the painted forest. We got some great pictures of the all of it. Hope you enjoy!

Vermilion

vermilion n. A bright red mercuric sulfide used as a pigment. A vivid red to reddish orange.

Yep...that's the right definition.

It's hard to imagine that any of the amazing Canyons we just left could be shown up by a cliff--even if it is a really, really, really, long cliff. But that's exactly what happened...at least for me. The Vermilion Cliffs are in northern Arizona on Highway 89A between Highway 67, the access road to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, and Highway 89.

Perhaps I was so taken with these cliffs because they literally thrust themselves upon our gaze as we encountered them from the west. As we were driving the gas guzzler we've affectionately named the Cozy Den up the steep ascent (behind and beyond which these cliffs hide), we were busily enjoying our already fading recollections of the grandeur and beauty of the Grand Canyon. All at once, as we crested the mountain and rounded its top to begin our descent, there they were...massive cliffs, in the most incredible, indescribably gorgeous hues of red to orange that we had seen yet.

In all their Vermilion splendor they stood, mile after mile, silent sentries bearing witness to God's creative genius. His handiwork surrounds us: in the largest, most magnificent displays and in the smallest, most delicate of scenes.

We are humbled and blessed to have the ability to take this trip where we are reminded daily that God is who He says He is.

The Grand GRAND CANYON--by Sveta

The minute I saw the Grand Canyon I absolutely knew that was it. As soon as, well, actually before the RV had even stopped, I was up and about, getting of the GRAND CANYON!!!!! After I regained my breath, though it was a bit difficult to get my breath to a natural rhythm and not sounding like a dog panting when it’s hot.

Finally, we reached the area where we were allowed my camera, my binoculars, my hat, and my sunglasses especially. But then when I started to get out of the car, Mom said to “chill,” so I had to sit down on the couch and wait for what seemed like decades which was actually only five minutes. Finally, we were allowed to go I was rearin’ to go but because of the 8,000 foot elevation I was sprinting for not one minute and was forced to stop because my breath was ragged and low, also because I was getting a light head. I waited for Mom, Dad, and Nadya to catch up and then I walked with them. After a while even walking got tiring and my legs started feeling a bit rubbery, so I was glad to be able to stop while Mom and Dad took pictures of a small but extraordinary view to go hiking to a view point where we could see an outstanding amount of the GRAND CANYON while walking to and at the viewing point. You could look in all directions and see nothing but the GRAND CANYON. There were lots and lots of shrubs decorating the sides of the canyon and equally as much trees as there were shrubs. How many wonderful pictures I took, I don’t even want to count! When I was done and satisfied with the many pictures I took, I went ahead and took pictures of small wild flowers. When we went back up the hills, we went in to the gift shop and bought some postcards. Satisfied with our trip, we head for our next stop in Flagstaff.

The Grand Canyon by Nadya

On June 23, 2008, we went to the Grand Canyon. When we got there, I couldn’t wait to get to the sight-seeing area. But first, Mom told us to go to the gift shop to get postcards for our scrapbooks. Sveta and I went into the gift shop and got immediately distracted. There was so much stuff! It looked like there were Indian beads and there was a lot of jewelry. Because Mom said at Wall Drug that we were probably going to get our ears pierced this summer, Sveta and I went to the earring section immediately. We saw all sorts of different kinds of materials for the earrings. There was opal, genuine gold, and many more jewels and gems. I showed Mom some of the really cool ones, and she saw that the prices were ridiculously low, she agreed to buy each of us a pair. I got opal ones, and I don’t know what Sveta got.

Then we went to the place where you get to see The Grand Canyon. I took so many pictures. It was so very large. Dad told me that we were seeing only about 10% of it. I thought it was big enough. Then we walked down a trail that was ¼ of a mile long. We hiked there and back. At the end, we stopped and took pictures. I took so many that my camera is nearly half way full. It was HUGE. It had many layers of sand packed in it that it didn’t almost look like rock. And the lines were not going side-to-side, they were going up-and-down. It was strange, but yet pretty. After we took all the pictures that we wanted, we started the long hike back. Sveta found a very cool flower. It was red and it had separate long petals. It was not tall. But the stem was sort of tall.

Thank you and please leave a comment. I will comment back to you if write to me!

Two Days of Canyons

We spent the afternoon of June 23^rd, following the all-night drive, in Red Canyon (which leads to Bryce Canyon when traveling from the west on Highway 12) and Bryce Canyon National Park. Then we spent a portion of the following day (6/24) at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim.

I did a search on adjectives in an attempt to find words that might articulate the sense of these three places—each unique, but sharing the same ‘canyon’ in their name. Amazing, astonishing, astounding, beyond belief, extraordinary, incredible, marvelous, phenomenal, remarkable, startling, and wondrous were some that I found. And yet, even these are not descriptive enough. Among these three canyons, there are a seemingly endless array of hues (in combinations you don’t expect) and countless remarkable geographic shapes, formations and natural visual oddities (some in shapes that actually resemble things we know…like the stony-shaped Organ Grinder’s Monkey, sitting atop one of the hoodoos in Bryce). There are chasms with depths that astound. There are cliffs that seem to descend to the Abyss. There are spires, standing shoulder to shoulder with others like them, each reaching toward Heaven, and one more gorgeous than the next.

The massiveness of the Grand Canyon when juxtaposed with the comparative diminutiveness of the Red Canyon surprises when you see them both within hours of one another. And then there is Bryce Canyon, which is not actually a canyon at all. This ‘canyon’ too surprises with its huge horseshoe shaped amphitheaters most of which contain the Park’s Hoodoos—the fanciful formations so called because they resemble ghostly hooded figures.

And perhaps the most surprising of all are the Scenic Drives which book-ended our arrivals and departures to these three canyons. The descriptions and superlatives about those drives must await the next submission.

And so I’ll simply end this Two Days of Canyons submission with an exhortation that you really must treat yourselves to a much larger and longer dose of God’s amazing handiwork in southern Utah and northern Arizona than we were able to enjoy.

Becky

All Night Drive—Destination Utah

The final event of Bob’s Porsche 356 Event was the awards ceremony (where the Wisconsin contingent once again did terrific—people don’t love it when we show up en masse). Upon his return at about 10:30 PM, we re-assessed our plan of sleeping until about 3 AM and taking off across “Loneliest Road in America”—Highway 50 from Lake Tahoe across Nevada to Utah. We had no alarm clock and I had already been sleeping since about 6 PM, having literally dropped into a deep sleep after our 30 hour, 667 mile trek from Truckee to Guerneville (to see Grandma Julie) to Placerville (to see Pattie and Max) and back to Truckee that Daisy wrote about.

Our assessment was that since Bob was awake and I was rested, he should drive us to Reno (while I rested a tad more) and then I should take over. Then while he slept, I’d drive as long as I could. And so we took off. I can report to you that Highway 50 really is the loneliest road. From just outside of Reno in the town of Fallon until you reach Ely, almost all the way across the state, there is NOTHING. I’m grateful that we did it at night. The road was essentially straight and, but for the random trucker, not only was there nothing, but there was NO ONE. My solution to fighting off sleepiness was a small bag of Dorito chips. When I’d feel a bit droopy-eyed I would take a chip and bite off the smallest little bits at a time—there being only this one bag. Something about the act of tasting and chewing woke me up every time. (Any nutritionists out there…what’s the deal with this??) Now usually I can ‘disappear’ one of those small bags in about 30 seconds flat. This night however—there of course being only this one bag to last me all the way across the state of Nevada—it lasted me about 4 ½ hours.

Note to Self: take small bites when eating Doritos in the future.

At the end of this night of driving and just before dawn, Bob awakened and we discussed our options: head two hours southeast to Cedar City, Utah (our destination for the night, which would require us to drive 2 hours back north again the next day in order to get to Bryce Canyon) or head straight to Bryce Canyon (a 5 1/2 hour drive). We opted to just head to Bryce Canyon, this being the most efficient (and zero backtracking) option.

More about that adventure in my next post!

My Friend Max

Woof everyone! I thought I’d fill you in on my new canine love, Max. He is a Schnauzer. And while the fur-less love of his life is a really nice lady named Patti Wooldridge, I’m quite certain that I’m his furry love. Mom, my fur-less sisters and I visited Patti and Max on the way back to Truckee after our very nice visit to Grandma Julie, the goats (not my favorites…perhaps I was just too hot), the chickens, the two cats (one of whom, Monkey, is a BIG FAT TEASE…sitting right outside the glass door from me); and the two dogs (Curly and Sal…they didn’t like me so much L). Anyway, Mrs. Wooldridge is the mom of one of my mom’s college pals, Sue. Max, the divine, is Pattie’s special man these days. Max and I are both about the same age (4-ish) and we had a lovely time running around the house, walking and romping outside and posing for photos. Max and Pattie have a lovely home right next to a small lake. While we were outside for our (contraband) off-leash romp, I took the opportunity to leap into the lake and swim, swim, swim—doggy heaven, for me anyway. I thought poor Maxie was going to have a doggie coronary (…he’s afraid of a few things, including water…poor thing). After we got done with our outdoor time, we retired to the lovely cool indoors where I played with his stuffed chicken and he played with my stuffed wolf (which was twice his size).

All in all we had a lovely time and I will miss Max dearly. My only solace is that I know he and Pattie are quite enamored with one another.

Woof,

DeeDee

p.s. Dear Mrs. Wooldridge, please forgive my potty indiscretion in your living room. I was just so filled up with lake water and so excited about Max that I lost my head!