Fulfilling a Life Long Dream at Petrified Forest National Park

A Forest Turned to Stone

Most of the places I've visited since I started seriously traveling were not places I dreamt about visiting as a child.  Many of the places I've visited I had never even heard of until I planned a trip there, like the Faroe Islands or Lassen National Park.  Petrified Forest National Park is the exception. I wanted to visit this park since I was a child obsessed with natural history.  Who doesn't want to see a forest where all the wood has turned to stone?  It sounds like something out of a fairy tale.  I was able to loop this park in on my American South West road trip in November 2014.  

Excited to finally have made it to Petrified Forest National Park.

A Pueblo and a Blowhole: Wupatki National Monument

An Ancient Mansion

The Ancient Pueblo People of the American southwest were awesome.  They are most known for carving out cliff dwellings like in Mesa Verde National Park and Walnut Canyon National Monument.  However, long before these ancient people got desperate enough to build massive cliff dwelling complexes, they were building pueblos, for which they were given their namesake.  Wupatki is home to to one of the largest complexes still standing built by the Ancient Pueblo People.

The largest Pueblo (building built of mud bricks) in Wupatki.

Sunset Crater at Sunset

Another Arizonan National Monument

Sunset Crater is not so much a crater as an ancient volcano, once part of an active volcano filed spanning much of the south west.  A national monument just north of Flagstaff, it's adjacent to Wupatki National Monument, allowing visitors to make one loop form the interstate to visit both monuments.  While a small monument, it had some impressive features that left me agape with awe. 

Standing in front of Sunset Crater, the ancient volcano the monument is named for.

Yep It's a Big Canyon, It's a Grand Canyon

Starring Into the Abyss of the Grand Canyon

I'm not sure what I was expecting from Grand Canyon National Park.  I know I was expecting beautiful vistas and awesome hiking.  I was not expecting to spend less than two hours, including lunch.  

My first view of the Grand Canyon at the South Rim Visitor's Center.

Ancient Cliff Dwellings in Arizona

Why Not Visit. . . Walnut Canyon National Monument?

Technically Walnut Canyon is a national monument, but the monument is maintained by the National Park Service.  We visited the monument in 2014 when on a road trip through the southwest.  Visiting Walnut Canyon was a last minute decision.  We had no idea it existed until I was checking in on Facebook at a nearby national monument, and Walnut Canyon came up as a check in option.  It was past closing time, when we discovered this national monument was so close.  So we checked into our Flagstaff hotel and vowed to visit first thing in the morning.  

The view of the canyon from the visitors' center.