After a long car ride, we arrived at the Painted Desert Visitor Center on the north side of the park. Here we gathered our backpacking permit and the park's map guide to begin our adventure. We were stunned by the beautiful vistas of the Painted Desert from the visitor center and many adjacent lookout areas. We decided to stop here for our picnic lunch and admire our first views of the park, where we would be spending the night.
We sure got our kicks!
The next stop was a blast into the past to explore the ancient Puebloan ruins and petroglyphs along a short walking trail. Here we saw the ruins of a village center, with over 100 rooms, from the Native Puebloan people who inhabited this place until a series of droughts in the 1200s. The tour included many petroglyphs, telling the story of the ancient past, as well as a Solar Marker that allowed the people to mark astronomically different events during the year, such as the solstices and equinoxes, to plan the planting and harvesting of foods. It is amazing how people would have lived in the past!
Kachina Panel.
2000 year old petroglyphs including the migration symbol.
Admiring the work of the Solar Marker in the stone.
White evening primrose.
Newspaper rock with over 650 petroglyphs dating back 2000 years.
After another short drive, we arrived at the Blue Mesa. Huge, beautiful rolling hills of purple, blue, gray, red, and white rise up from the ground against the bright blue sky. The hills looks like the texture of dry, hard elephant skin. I couldn't help thinking of elephants rolling through the hills and blending in with the landscape! The whole landscape looks very Triassic!
Wild paintbrush.
Here we completed a 1 mile loop to see the blue hills up close, scattered with the remains of petrified trees. It was such a unique and stunning landscape, seeing the barren yet colorful hills with large tree logs tumbling down the ravines preserved into crystalline rocks. Nothing compares!
Our next stop was a panoramic view of the Jasper Forest--one of the highest concentrations of petrified wood. The vista shows not only the colorful geology of the region, but how prevalent the petrified logs are throughout the park!
As for the petrified wood, all of the petrified logs in the park are in the form of quartz, sparkling and glittering in the sunlight. These ancient fossils are the result of logs washed into an ancient river system and buried by massive amounts of sediments and debris, as well as volcanic ash, over 200 million years ago. The debris would have cut off any access to oxygen to drastically slow down the decay and decomposition process of the ancient trees. Over the many decades it took the trees to decompose, minerals from the debris and volcanic ash were absorbed by the porous wood, forming crystalline structures that replaced the organic materials as it broke down over centuries. Now these amazing quartz fossils tell the story of what the land would have been like millions of years ago! Science is incredible!
After our fill of the Crystal Forest, we headed back up the Painted Desert to backpack to our camping spot. Our pawrents loaded up our gear, including food and lots of water, and we headed down into the desert landscape to find our perfect camping site. We hiked about 2 miles in, crossing many washes from the region's monsoons, and found the perfect sandy spot in between the purple and pink hills to spend the night. We setup camp, had dinner, and enjoyed our evening under the stars in the Painted Desert.
Taking a wee rest in the soft, cool sand.
Wild Cryptantha
Out playing in the sunset, admiring the 360 views of the painted hills.
This park is now one of my favorite national parks and is highly underrated! Be sure to check it out and enjoy the incredible scenery and the magical science behind this unique and mind-blowing geology!
Happy tails!
-Rosie
