The Petrified Forest And The Painted Desert

 Up and atta 'em about 9:30 and drove 20 miles to the P.F. and P. D. I had had the idea that the "forest" consisted of--oh, I don't know, dead trees still standing that you just wandered among. 

Well, it's no such thing. It's a vast--everything is vast in the west--area with logs that, through geological forces, have been essentially turned to stone. In many of the logs, that resulted in beautiful crystal- or marble-like changes that we greatly enjoyed seeing:

(Here, I tried to include one or two pictures of what I described above and it just ain't happening for some reason. Will fill in later, if possible.)

This is a huge park, covering an incredible 50,000 acres. We trekked out a mile or two for some of the more interesting groups of logs and took advantage of a number of overlooks and viewing points. 

I liked seeing the petrified wood, but found even more interesting the configuration of the landscape: 

We stayed there for most of the day, then headed back to the RV, and dinner, and settled in. Today, we start off for New Mexico, home for two-thirds of us.