Petrified Forest & The Painted Desert

Who knew you could close Four Corners??!!

The Petrified Forest - a geologist's dreamland

The Painted Desert, the pictures don't really show


all the amazing colors from reds to greens to purples

Pretty neat petroglyphs

A raven hanging out around the parking lot,

this one was huge - it hasn't missed any meals!

Those look like stones, but it's all petrified wood

Pieces like this are laying around everywhere

Some of the wood has great colors. The colors depend

on what minerals were in the silica when it hardened.

Some are small, some are really big!

This one is called Old Faithful

Taking the oath as Jr. Rangers and

getting our badges and patches.

Hi everybody! We went to Four Corners, the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. I'm a rock-hound, so I was in "hog heaven" at the Petrified Forest NP. The worst part of the day was that Four corners was closed due to construction. That wasn't fun, but the rest of the day was great! We first went to the Painted Desert which looked like it was really painted. It was beautiful! There were red, orange, blue, purple, gray and green layers. Then we were off to the Petrified Forest. The wood came in all different colors and ranged in different sizes. We each got a piece of beautiful petrified wood (not from the park, but legally outside the park) and a paper telling us what mineral made each color in the wood (like yellow=sulfur). Luke and I also got our Jr. Ranger badges once again. Now we both have four badges. What a fun day it was! We will be going to the Grand Canyon next, so keep checking in!

*Caitlin*