Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, Oh My!

Happy birthday to Ken! We will celebrate his birthday and Rebecca's when we are in Vegas, but for today we topped our adventures with a trip to Denny's for hot fudge brownie ice cream dessert, one of Ken's favorites. Ken got lots of birthday calls and greetings today. Chris and Anara sang Happy Birthday this morning. Jeff and Rebecca both called, and both had news. Jeff expects to be separated from the Air Force this fall. He plans to move back to Vegas where Sabrina lives and where he hopes to be able to get a safety job working for the government or private industry. Rebecca and Cathy are moving to a new house in Victorville, and Cathy is about to start a job. Lots going on in everyone's lives.

Today we drove over to Petrified Forest National Park, which includes the Painted Desert Unit. We started at the northern visitor center and worked our way south, being amazed by the spectacular and colorful landforms and the petrified wood. We hiked several short trails and Ken took lots of photos.

Wow!

Amazing colors!

We saw lizards and birds, including some small bright yellow birds that flew about near the Painted Desert Inn and some huge ravens.

Blue Mesa coloring created by bentonite in the sediments

"Old Faithful" giant petrified log at Big Logs

We arrived at the Rainbow Forest Museum just before closing and hiked the Big Logs Trail but decided to leave the Agate Forest and Long Logs for our next visit.