After leaving Grand Canyon NP, I needed a sense of reality and really didn’t want to sleep in the freezing cold again. So we stayed one night at a hotel. I was able to get the room for $3 with some points, so it was within our budget. #win
We were able to charge all of our electronics, have a nice shower, do laundry and sleep in a real bed. After feeling refreshed, we started making our way to our next stop, Petrified Forest NP. We wanted to see the Meteor Crater Natural Landmark along the way, but when we got there, we found out there is an admission of $18pp. We didn’t have the budget for that so we decided against it. There was no way of even getting a glimpse of the crater as they had the whole area fenced off. We found a dirt road on the backside of the crater to try to take a little peek, but lo and behold, when we got to the end of the road, there was a fence.
We gave up and continued on our way to Petrified Forest. We decided to stay close by the park so we can have a full day of exploring the next day. We found a campsite by the Little Colorado River to stay at for the night. We reorganized our stuff, watched the sunset and made dinner. This was the night I learned how to make a fire!
The next day we headed into Petrified Forest NP. We weren’t sure how long it would take for us to explore the whole park as the park is only open between 8am-5pm But after looking at the map (the park isn’t very big), we decided we could complete it in one day. We entered on the south side of the park and explored the Rainbow Forest Museum and Visitor Center first. Then we walked the Giant Logs trail behind the building. There is so much history in this park, it’s amazing to see that they still live on today.
After eating some sandwiches for lunch, we did the Long Logs trail to the Agate House. The Agate House is a partially reconstructed Puebloan house that was made entirely out of petrified wood. There is one main road that goes through the whole park and connects to all of the sights and trails. A majority of the sights are a quick stop, take a picture and move on. We headed towards Crystal Forest next, named for the quartz that can be found in the petrified wood, which gives them a crystalized look.
Next up was Agate Bridge, a 110 foot long petrified log perched on top rocks forming a bridge. We took our picture and moved on.
We drove through the Blue Mesa Drive, a small scenic loop into the Blue Forest. Here, we could see all the petrified logs laying over the badlands.
We drove pass the Tepees and stopped at Newspaper Rock, a rock with petroglyphs on it. This was a bit disappointing as we had to look through binoculars to see the pictures on rocks. The viewing platform was also above the rocks, so we weren’t able to even get close to them for a picture.
We walked around Puerco Pueblo and we’re glad we did. We were able to see the ruins of a large Pueblo from 1300 AD. There were also a few petroglyph rocks that were much closer and visible from the path.
We stopped at the Route 66 site, where the historic Route 66 used to cross right in between the park. They had an old car standing at the exact spot where the road intersected the park.
The next 6 points on the map were all stop and go view points which we went through very quickly as the park was closing soon and we were cutting it close. When we got to the Painted Desert Inn, it was already closed.
But we did it! We completed the whole park in one day and started back on the road towards Sedona. On the way to Sedona, we stopped in Winslow, AZ. An old coworker told me that I needed to take a picture standing on a corner in this town. So we stopped at the corner, took a picture, so I could send proof of my visit. The sunset that night was one of a kind!
We camped outside of Sedona that night and woke up to the beautiful red rock scenery. There are so many hike options in Sedona, we decided to hike to Devil’s Bridge. I had done the hike before and knew there was a stretch of the hike that is accessible by 4×4 vehicles, making the actual hike a lot shorter. When we arrived to the parking lot, it was packed! Good thing we weren’t parking there. We drove past the sign advising us that the road ahead is for 4×4 high clearance vehicles only. There were a lot of people walking towards the trail as we were driving past them. We we got to the trailhead we realized we shaved off 1.5 miles from this 2.1 mile hike. #win
We climbed the last 0.6 miles to get to the bridge. This hike is apparently very popular as we saw loads of people in the parking lot, during our drive to the trailhead and at the bridge. It’s a cool view but I would suggest coming during off hours for less people and better pictures.
After finishing the hike, we started towards Mesa, AZ as Enoch has family there that he hadn’t seen in a long time. We broke up the drive by staying at the Four Peaks Wilderness Area just outside of Mesa. We had an amazing sunset that day too and finally saw some Saguaro cacti! This was exciting to us as Saguaro National Park is next on our list.
MoLeisureXventures 