Howdy? I hope this post finds y’all happy. healthy and prosperous. We had a fairly uneventful winter except for the visit of Pat’s sister Sally. She said one of the places she always wanted to see was the Grand Canyon. When she came to visit in February we drove up to the canyon and stayed two nights in a lodge on the South rim. We had great weather and had some great food at the old lodge in the National Park.
We left Surprise the first of May and stayed in the Cottonwood, AZ area for about two weeks. Cottonwood is one of our favorite places. We then traveled northeast to the Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, AZ. We had been by there several times but for one reason or the other we never stopped. Big mistake. It is a great park. Every thing you see in these photos is solid rock. Even what looks to be bark on the trees is rock and all the things that appear to look like just ordinary dark rocks are petrified wood. Even the birds sitting on the petrified limbs are petrified birds singing petrified songs. (I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.)
We did find some wildlife in the park. When we first saw this Collared Lizard we thought some child had lost their toy----- then it moved.
After the National Park we moved to New Mexico to Bluewater State Park near Grants. Near there is the El Malpais National Monument. The monument protects a 40 mile long lava flow with sink holes, lava tubes, cinder cones and all sorts of great volcanic stuff.
The next two photos are of a trail we hiked to see the above collapsed lava tube. Yes, there is a trail there somewhere. Hiking a mile on lava is like hiking 5 miles on dirt or pavement. It is just hard work.
This tree, which has not been broken off, could be well over 100 years old.
In the same general area of New Mexico is El Morro National Monument. El Morro is a large rock formation that sits off by itself and has a rare permanent pool of water by it.
What makes El Morro famous is that since the early Spanish explorers came by here, people have been carving their names in the soft rock.
The first known European inscription on the rock was left by Onate in 1605, about 200 years before the Lewis and Clark expedition.
We moved to the four corners area near Bloomfield, NM to Navajo Lake State Park. Below the dam flows the San Juan River, a famous trout stream. People come from all over the country to fish here.
Along the river are these wonderful old Cottonwood trees.
While walking one of the trails in the park I was lucky to find this hummingbird building her nest. I spent a lot of time watching the progress because every job needs a supervisor.
I will continue our New Mexico tour in our next post.
