ARIZONA

After a full first day of driving through Texas and New Mexico we were onto Arizona. Any time we are approaching a sign marking that we are entering a new state, we begin a countdown. It goes a little something like this "tennn, niiinee, eighhtt, sevennnn, six, fivee, four, threeee, two, one, we're in Arizonaaaaaaa!!" this happens every time, without fail. It is a bit lame but hey, we got to find some way to keep entertained.

Early into the day we came across an exit sign that would lead us to the The Petrified Forest National Park. We took the exit to the right and parked in front of the visitors center.  We found out it was about a 45 minute detour drive off of the main road, so we paid the entrance fee and started on a self guided car tour through the "forest". I quote that because we soon found out that there isn't actually a forest anywhere around. Below is a photo of what we first came across. Yeah, those stumps on the ground are what is left of the forest.

A forest that existed years and years ago during the triassic era (as the brochure would tell us). Eventually the trees were buried by volcanic sediment and saturated in silica. "Most of the logs retained their original form during petrification but lost their internal structure". Basically the logs look like wood on the outside but the inside is made up of quartz crystal. Pretty cool but at this point I wasn't at all convinced that this place was worth the extra time.      

But then, we came across this scenery. The photo below is one of my favorite photos that I took all trip. I almost captioned my instagram of this view with "Greetings I'm on Mars!" The dirt was so red it looked like it could have been! (except the blue sky, clouds, and grass would have given it away.) Ok. Ok. maybe that entrance fee was worth it. Maybe...but I still wasn't completely sold. 

Then further up the road we came up to this section of the tour. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I had one of those "is this real life?!" moments. As I stood in the middle of the road I felt overwhelmed in thinking what this exact spot was like millions of years ago. The transformation that this place has endured was seen in the layered colors on the plateaus, each layer telling a different history, a different story of life that occurred. By this point, I knew the drive through here was worth it.

Now back on the main highway, we continued to make our way across Arizona.

Although I was surprisingly impressed by the views earlier in the day. Once we got to Flagstaff I was pretty happy to finally see some greenery. 

As you can see in the photos the scenery from the start of the day to the end changed so drastically and it only took a few hours. Flagstaff was nice. The green forest trees we are often spoiled with being surrounded by, was beautiful but familiar. The Arizona we saw earlier in the day was a type of landscape that I am not used to seeing and because of this I often forget it even exists. It was such a different experience and so uniquely beautiful. I can see why places like that can get overlooked but if you pay close attention and give it a chance, the beauty is there, it just might take an epic road trip to get you to notice. 

Anyway, that same day we made it into California. You know the drill, "...three, twooo, oneee, we're in Californiaaaaa!" 

but I'll save all that excitement for the next post.