Painted Desert/Petrified Forest Hikes

Holbrook AZ to Page AZ

Day five of our trip, and we are getting close to our main stop, the Grand Canyon. When we went to bed last night the wind was blowing hard, making me worry about something falling from the tree overhead. Sometime after midnight rain came, but not the lightning that had been predicted. (Thank God!) The rain lasted until a bit before we needed to pack up. We were able to pack the wet tent and head over to a food stand that was serving all you can eat pancakes, then the sky let loose! The small covered picnic area was built to shade from su, not shed water. Soon all the tables and benches were wet from dripping rain as we searched for a dry spot to sit. Even though water occasionally splashed on someone’s plate every one was in a good mood, laughing and talking about how wet it was. 

We headed back to Petrified Forest/Painted Desert to do some hikes that we missed yesterday. We started with the Blue Mesa trail. It started to rain again and we did not have adequate rain gear so the hike started out cold and a bit miserable. Stephen ended up staying at the car because breakfast was not sitting well. Blue Mesa ended up being one of my favorite things in the park. It was beautiful!

The blue layers were really a purple and the layers of colored sand towered over head, blocking out noise and creating an other worldly experience. Stephen was able to see the path from an overlook.

The next stop was the Jasper Forest, an overlook that took in a low area with a high amount of petrified wood.

From there we went to the Crystal Forest, where we saw petrified wood up close. It was crazy how a pile of what looked like wood chips from a saw were actually chips of stone.

After leaving the park and buying a piece of petrified wood to take home, we hit the road for Page AZ. We passed a tepee hotel like the one in Pixar’s Cars. It looked like they even decorated with antique cars that were similar to the movie.

The road to Page goes past the road to Grand Canyon…

The ride was beautiful!

We made it safely to our campground. We found that only certain roads caused the car to scrape due to being very bumpy. If we go slower then we get by much better. The only mishap today was losing a hubcap at the entrance to the campground. It fell of as Stephen drove in the entrance and he was easily able to retrieve it.

The Page Lake Powell is the most picturesque campground on our trip so far. It has a lovely red wall of earth and rock towering behind it.