“And it stoned me to my soul / Stoned me just like goin’ home” – Van Morrison
No, we’re not in Colorado yet, but today we did visit Petrified Forest National Park! Our first stop of the day though, was the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. We woke up at our last National Park Lodge of the trip and were on the road by 7 for the 45 minute drive. Since we arrived a bit early we had some time to walk around the property pretty much on our own. This trading post was established well over 100 years ago by the Hubbell family and over those decades expanded to include around a dozen buildings. One of the coolest things I saw were a bowling ball sized piece of rough turquoise and two equally large pieces of petrified wood. For some reason I neglected to take a picture.
Once the visitor’s center and trading post opened the girls picked up their junior ranger packs. They proved to be quite challenging this time around, but between the four of us we found all the answers. The actual trading post part of the compound was smaller than I’d anticipated. I was hoping this may be the place I finally find the giant triangle I’ve been seeking, but no luck. They did have an impressive assortment of beautiful Navajo rugs available, but with starting prices around $2,000 they were a bit over the budget. After checking out the trading post we toured the rest of the buildings. The turkey in the chicken coop may have been the best animal sighting of the day. It’s loud gobbling brought on lots of laughs from the girls.
After another hour in the car we arrived at Petrified Forest National Park. The northern half of the park had some cool views of the Painted Desert, but the southern half was where things really got interesting. We did a couple small (1 mile and 2.5 mile) hikes through the “forests” of petrified trees. Each one seemed more unbelievably amazing than the next. The colors of the rock-trees ranged across the spectrum; blacks, red, oranges, blues, and purples were all on display. We learned how the trees form their own pedestals that, at least geologically speaking, put them briefly on display as they emerge from the layers of sandstone they are encased in. We also saw a pubelo (re)built completely of petrified wood.
The girls are now enjoying an evening in the pool, something we haven’t had in a couple weeks while I catch up with blogging, photos, reservations, laundry, and other road trip chores. We’ll be camping tomorrow, but have a big day planned with visits to three National Monuments. Hopefully we’ll be able to find a bit of WiFi to post about it, but if not look forward to more in a couple days!
