We left Sedona at about 6:45 AM to miss a possible snow shower at the pass near Flagstaff. We missed the snow and decided to stop at the Meteor Crater site near Winslow. After driving in, I got cheap (due to the entrance fee) and only Cathy went in (she had never seen a meteor crater before). Truth is, it was cold and there were 40+ MPH winds and I stayed in the motor home, turned on the generator and fired up the heaters. I was comfortable but did manage this shot of the area near the parking lot. As you can see, the sky was awesome:
Cathy took these photos of the crater. This is the first crater discovered and the best preserved in the world according to Arizona officials. The dry weather prevents erosion that occurs at some of he other sites. Apollo astronauts trained in this crater in preparation of the original moonwalk. They also practiced gathering material from the impact site, accounting for impact strength and dispersion . .
Next stop was the Petrified Forest National Park, which is one of the best places on earth to see the fossil record from the late Triassic Period. There is petrified wood strewn about a large area of this desert, evidence of ancient forests. There is also a plethora of early dinosaurs and reptiles, including birds and huge alligator-like creatures from 225 million years ago.
Some closer ups of the colors in the wood. Sunlight would have enhanced the coloring but alas, we continued under heavy cloud cover. My highlight of this area is a composit photograph of John Muir standing next to a petrified log in the early 1900s, superimposed on the exact same log that is still there. (We were talking with a park ranger and he pointed it out to us).
This is a photo of the terrain around the park. There is a huge stump down in this valley that has been there for millions of years. It is probably too heavy to scavenge . .
These are a set of hills known at the Tepees. I can see why . . .
Our next stop was at the village on the Rio Puerco (Puerco Pueblo) site. This is a site that was inhabited from 1250 AD to 1380 AD by ancestral Puebloan people. At its peak, there were over 100 individual rooms and it housed over 200 people. Only about 30% of this site has been excavated, and some of that has since been backfilled to preserve the fragile walls.
This area is studded with petroglyphs and I tried to capture a variety:
This one is special . . it is a solar calendar. This particular calender marks the summer solstice, June 20th. On that date, a sliver of light shines down the cleft in the center of the flat top rock and points at the figure in the second photograph, which is directly facing the cleft within a few minutes of 9:00 AM. Pretty amazing.
Now, we age getting better about the markings . . .this particular one is a symbol representing migration:
These are Kachinas, which are spiritual beings in western Pueblo religious beliefs. There are literally hundreds of different Kachinas.
After leaving the pueblo, we drove through the Painted Desert and by the historic Painted Desert Inn. There was very limited parking at the inn so we continued on. (No room at the inn? hmm). This inn is located on the historic Route 66. The Petrified Forest is the only National Park that has preserved a section of this road.
The colors here were incredible but sunlight would have made them truly unbelievable.
We continued west via Zuni Pueblo, over a 7,900 foot pass in the Zuni Mountains (and snowing) and are spending the night in Grants. It is supposed to snow two inches tonight. Cold, cold, cold . .
Travelling with the Schinglers 