Brush Strokes

Our second day in Holbrook took us to another National Park nearby. Our ride out to the park was spectacular with the views along the way. It was like someone had shot the bright blue sky with white paint balls. The sky was peppered with these while puffy clouds and it just made the entire site incredible. Imagine looking all around you and seeing these flat fields accompanied with these clouds. It's amazing when you don't have any buildings or trees around and you look out and it seems that you can see forever.

We arrived at the Painted Desert to find views that took our breath away. The colors of the cliffs were so intense. While we were admiring the canyon below a Raven didn't appreciate the fact that we chose his spot to stop and look. This raven was flying overhead and would swoop down to try and persuade us to leave. I managed to catch him in flight and it made for one of my favorite pictures.

Back in 1906 when this park was first opened they built an Inn for people to come stay in the park. This Inn is no longer operating but you can still walk around inside and admire the building. This structure was built all by hand. All the logs were cut and shaped by hand. All the planks of wood for the floors were cut by hand. They didn't have the means to get the necessary tools up here so they made due with what they had. In the slide show you will see more pictures of the Inn. One of the famous people that stayed here, Albert Einstein, with his crazy hair and all.

The Painted Desert isn't too far from the Petrified Forest. You can see some similarities in the soil. There are no petrified trees in this area but they have found several dinosaur bones buried within the layers. Over time these hills are being washed away and reveling more hidden treasures below. Also, the cliffs themselves are slowly disappearing with the erosion. The colors in the soil are from different types of minerals that saturated this area. Iron, Silicon Dioxide, Manganese to name a few.

When this park first opened one of the ways people could visit it was to arrive by train, via the Santa Fe Railroad, or by car, via Route 66. As I have said before, much of 66 is buried and forgotten.

Here is the road that once was the main artery from Chicago to California. Today all that remains here is telephone poles. The road has been reclaimed by nature. You can still see the bump in the landscape from the road and in the background is Route 40 that has claimed much it.

We couldn't help but wonder after looking at the Painted Desert what will the Grand Canyon be like. These views are incredible already and we just can't imagine more. Enjoy the Painted Desert.