Day Four

This morning we left Gallup and headed towards Flagstaff, stopping at the Petrified Forest National Park.

Right off the bat the view was amazing. We came in on the Painted Desert end of the park, so we got to see all of it first.





We made a stop at the Painted Desert Inn. It was a working inn decades ago and is now just a little museum.


Here is one of the rooms. Teensy by our standards (a sink, a tiny fireplace and room for a double bed), but I bet it was the big time back then!


Just a quick pick of the family...


We headed further into the park and saw some petroglyphs that they estimate to be 600 to 800 years old. Reed was pretty impressed with these.


Even further in the park we finally came upon the petrified wood!


The inside of a petrified log...


The petrified wood is so pretty! There are signs posted everywhere asking people not to take pieces. We watched an informational film before we headed out to the park and it said that even though people are repeatedly asked not to take pieces, one TON is taken out of the park every MONTH!!! You could see how people had chipped away pieces of the logs- especially the ones right next to the trails. So sad.
As we were walking along, I happened to see a collared lizard on the edge of a log. He let me get pretty close!





My sweet family...


And me... :)


We drove through Holbrook and into Flagstaff. Dinner, swimming for the boys and off to bed! Big day tomorrow...

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