On The High Road: The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

Denise and Rick Cunningham

Like many boomers we're planning the "next chapter". We live a fairly chaotic life in Georgetown in Washington DC. I'm a former fashion executive and journalist. Rick's an engineer and computer scientist. We're about ready for a little change of pace. Travel... perhaps moving to warmer climes ...and definitely savoring more moments. We never set out to buy an RV...matter of fact, we had never even been in one and I definitely don't camp. But, now, with more time and a growing aversion to the insults of air travel, we bought a 40' motor coach. Our grandson, Ian, named it Gigantor. We call it Tor for short.

We're seeing things you just can't from the air and finding that we've so much to discover on this continent. In the past two years, we've taken three marvelous six-week trips. This time, we're "chasing the sun for as long as it fun". We left on October 5, 2009. We'll see how long we last!

We're searching for great places to stay, sights worth seeing, golf courses worth playing, great restaurants, shopping, farmer's markets. We're on the road in search of the high road.

Monday, December 7, 2009

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

November 30

Don't listen to anyone who tells you not to go to The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, as someone told us....it is majestic, stunning and just jaw-dropping. Both are accessed through the Petrified Forest National Park about 20 miles east of Holbrook, AZ. It's a 28 mile drive with numerous look-outs and trails. We should have allowed far more time....we spent about 3 hours in the park and could have used a couple of more.

The first stop is a vast view of the Painted Desert with it's varying palette of what we now call Southwestern colors....there is a definite reason for that!

We keep stopping at one moonscape after another.

The Petrified Forest section begins as you cross over Historic Route 66. The Park Service seems to concentrate more on this portion in their brochure descriptions and wandering off points. There are some long hiking trails, but we opt for those of a mile or less due to time/darkness constraints.

I was here when I was 8...I didn't appreciate it nearly as much then. Amongst the fascinating petrified rocks and logs, there is evidence of pueblo ruins and petroglyphs that have been traced back more than 10,000 years. Research indicates these early residents left the area around 1400 A.D.