Painted Desert (Part II) & Meteor Crater
This was our second time to the Painted Desert, but this time we went out a bit further east near Holbrook, Arizona to the Petrified Forest National Park. It was a vastly different than our first visit to the Painted Desert. The drive took about 4 hours, part of which is the old historic Route 66. Once you arrive at the Petrified Forest, it's a 28 mile drive through the park.
I know in the last post we suggested leaving early to drive to this part of Arizona. Well... we're not very good at listening to our own advice. We left at 12p that day but this time we knew we had 2 days to enjoy this trip, so we took our sweet time. We planned on going to the Painted Desert on the first day, but true to our nature, we showed up 10 minutes after the park closed (typical Navarro fashion).
The problem wasn't that we left too late from Phoenix, the problem is our attention span! We got distracted by these darn prancing deer... we just had to stop and take pictures of them.
There's an awesome old garage and gas station along the way. This summed up our day 1 of our little 2 day excursion before heading to our home base in Flagstaff.
On our 2nd day, we made a point of starting early. We were SO EXCITED to see Meteor Crater and "experience the IMPACT!" But let us tell you, it's expensive! At least it seems expensive to us at $18 per adult. It's worth going to see once, though. There's a neat little museum you walk through and we got a kick listening to the Meteor Crater radio station AM 1610 on the way there. It must've been pretty amazing to have discovered this place. There are viewing stations of the different points inside the crater, one points to where David Barringer drilled a mine thinking he'd find the meteorite deposits. The research history of this place goes back to 1800's, which you can explore in the on-site museum.
After hitting up Meteor Crater, we made it to the Petrified Forest FINALLY! When we went, I believe the cost per vehicle was $10. However, as of February 2018, I see it has gone up to $20 per vehicle (please let us know if this is accurate).
It's quite a lovely drive through the park. There are lots of places to stop and hike a little along easy paths and see some pretty awesome petroglyphs.
Seeing the petrified rock of an old forest kinda puts things into perspective. I wonder what the land looked like when the trees were standing tall. The time that has passed is really just a blip in the earth's history and we're such babies in comparison!
