Triassic Park

It is hard to grasp how old these petrified trees are because as humans we are just a blink of an eye in time. The best example that helps me put this into perspective came from one of my college teachers who suggested that we look at the history of earth as a calendar year. The Triassic period, when these monsters were made, died and turned to stone would have happen in the middle of the month of December. The dinosaurs that walked the earth were gone by the 27th of December and humans showed up at 11:15 on December 31.

So what toppled these giants and how did they become stone? Well a very long story short, as short as I can get it:

225 million years ago this area was a lowland with a tropical climate covered by forest. Rivers created by heavy rain storms washed mud and other sediments into the lowlands and the enormous coniferous trees, up to 9 feet in diameter and 200 feet tall, died or fell and were buried by river sediments and volcanic ash from eruptions that blanketed the area with a high silica ash. Burial kept the plant debris from destruction and over time, the silica replaced the plant debris, creating petrified wood. Trace amounts of iron, manganese and other minerals were included in the silica and gave the petrified wood all the colors we see today.

Add a few millions of years, the area gets uplifted and wind erodes away the softer materials, Petrified wood being a much harder rock. Sets on the new surface. Visitors to the park can observe the petrified wood and photograph it but collecting petrified wood in the park is prohibited. When Route 66 passed through this area the wood was being taken from the area in great numbers leaving just a portion of what was originally here before the park was established. Petrified wood is not a rare rock, it is found all over the world but this area is just a splendid example with a very high concentration. Rocks like the ones we found in Yuma and purchased at our campground are found in many other areas around the desert SW but you will never see it in the abundance as in the National Park.

Many of these are Giants. The example below is just part of one tree!

Agates bridge was at risk of collapsing before a concrete brace was put in place.

Hoodoo that voodoo like you do

Studebaker in a National Park?

Before we ventured into the Petrified Forest portion of the park we took a trip forward in time from the Triassic period to mid-century America when the mother of all roads also called “Main Street of America” took travelers from Chicago to Las Angeles, I'm talking about Route 66. At times the I 40 is over the old road bed but in this spot, old telephone lines without wires and a vintage 1932 Studebaker mark the only spot were the icon passes through a national park. If you look close, you can still see the wooden frame inside the now rusted out car, man they sure don't build them like that anymore.

The Painted Desert

Heading east on I 40 (Route 66) past the small northern AZ town of Halbrook is the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Both are a part of the National Parks and span a 27 mile long road starting on the north side of I 40 extending back south towards Halbrook. The park is home to one of the worlds best examples of fossils from the late Triassic period. Today we see a badlands but at one time this was a prehistoric forest where dinosaurs roamed and great forests were toppled. We made a day of it today which ended with me buying a few petrified pieces back at our base camp near Halbrook. With this first blog entry, I'll share what we learned on the north side of the road, the Painted Desert.

If We venture this way again, and we probably will, we will take the ranger tour from Lacey point, people told us that it was very informative, but on this trip, we did not. A quick stop at the visitor center and we were on our way to the 8 lookouts that view the multicolored landscape. The colors seen in the soft sedimentary rocks are due to hematite (red), limonite (yellow) and gypsum (white). We took a short hike from the top of the blue Mesa down to the valley floor passing petrified trees along the way. Many lie partially buried in the clay, where erosion gradually and continuously exposes more with time.

Happy Easter!

From the Easter bunny in northern Arizona.

We're on our way home.

Say good by to Catalina and hello to the long, slow drive home. This first part takes us through a new pass and into the heart of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, home to the Salt River Canyon. We had a windy day but the trek through the canyon was sheltered and beautiful. That changed as soon as we left Show Low and headed north to Holbrook, our hideout for the next two days. What's in Holbrook you say? Not much but the Petrified Forest, a National Park is just up the road. We noticed examples of what we might see tomorrow as we drove through town with all of its rock shops. Even our little roadside RV park has petrified rocks everywhere. Should be interesting with some colorful photos to come.

Throw back Thursday

Captured this glimps of bumfuzzel

Some rigs look old but are actually new with that 50s vib.

Throw back Thursday. Nothing says retro like a vintage land yacht. Brings me back to my childhood when our family of six people and at least three dogs hit the road for northern MN.

Some have fond memories of these adventures but I recall being cramped in the little tin can during days of rain, cold nights, hot days and a make shift bathroom that resembled a coffee can, butternut as I recall. When we finally got out into the wilderness, a battle with the largest mosquitos in North America was on from the skis above while the wood ticks climbed your legs to drilled their nasty littles heads into your flesh. OK, believe it or not, I am an outdoors person and I love our travels into the remote areas of this nation but some of my memories of our little camper, not so great! Still, these old beauties are close to the heart and harken to a simpler life which many of us long for. And then the old Dodge rolls out of the campground spewing black smoke from her rear. Ahhhhh yes.

The locals are out

The weather is warm and the locals are out and about. The usual cast of characters in Catalina State Park include the ground squirrels, Vermillion Flycatcher and the Cardinal look alike, Pyrrhuloxia (shown here) and Phainopepla (the black Cardinal, not shown). These critters entertain us daily.

Alley of Giants

The lush desert, I know that sounds wrong, but a walk through the surrounding Tucson areas show a diversity of vegetation that matches any forest back home. And these giant saguaros near the trail head are the signature plants for the Sonora desert that stretches deep into Mexico.

And it tastes good too!

I know people that buy wine based on the pretty label. I have one friend that buys her wine because there are horses on the label and I must confess, I purchased this bottle because the name matches my name and I rarely see it used in the USA. When I do see it, I will usually buy what ever it is, with in reason. If it's over $20, maybe just a photo. On one of my last visits to San Francisco I dined at a restaurant of the same name, and it was excellent! When Gary and I traveled to Quebec we purchased some ice cream because, you guessed it, the name. Just OK as ice cream would go.

I have always loved the name my mother gave to me, and have often wondered where and how she came up with it? She also had a unique name and she explained that her mother came up with her name after reading a French Novel. When ever I pressed her for the origin of my name she would discuss the fact that my fathers father was of French Canadian decent, but that still didn't explain where she came up with it??? I've done the genealogy on both sides and you got it, no where to be found. What I can tell you is that my mother was a prolific reader, she read a book almost every night before bed and trashy French novels could have easily been on the reading list in her early days, during pregnancy. Later in life, she turned to science fiction so a vivid imagination was clearly in place.

It's not an easy name, most Americans get the pronunciation wrong, some even opt for Denise thinking it must have been spelled wrong. Even after I say my name twice and give the obvious visual connection to the fleur De Lys, many continue to call me Delssy, or Delilah and more than once, Delta?!%^*¥£. Mom would say that it takes a strong individual to live with a unique name and I can say for sure that even though she was just 5 feet tall, you did not mess with my mom or her unique name. No one would ever accuse me of being a wall flower or shrinking violet (wrong genus). So my name has its challenges but what the heck, I still love it.

85 and sunny in Catalina

It's 85 and sunny, sure it's a dry heat but it is a good time to have air conditioning and 50 amp!

Home in Catalina

Arizona is a place of great beauty and great diversity in the geology. The place we always come back to is Tucson and the state park at Catalina is one of our favorite places to stay. Within a few hours of our arrival we had the locals stop by with home coming treats. We are not much for lizard but the centement is welcome and the gesture returned with two humming bird feeders and one make shift seed feeder. Nothing like a good meal to bring in a crowd!

We love a Parade

Our last few days in Mesa Regal were a lot of fun with their annual parade, last minute rock polishing, a evening swim and lots of time with my old high school pal, Linda. She has a place in Mesa Regal and is the reason we stayed in this fantastic resort for a month. Many of the regional parks and state parks have raised their fees to the point that they cost more than these resorts and while this is a very different experience, we will be back in Mesa Regal in the years to come.

Beauty in the park

The early rains this year and some warmer than average weather have created some beautiful blooms in the park. Dispite our location in a developed park, there is still much to see in the local flora and fauna Department. Our site has a grapefruit tree with a nesting morning dove. I hope to get a shot before we leave of her babies, but for now, we stopped picking the grapefruit so we don't scare her off the nest. Not an issue, I picked enough to last a long time.