May 10, 2024 - Day 6 to Ontario

 May 10, 2024 - Day 6 to Ontario

What a gorgeous day. Sun is up and temps are about 40. Remember, no rain or snow makes it a great day. Larry called me outside. This is what we saw. 4 mule deer. Pretty cool.

The saga continues with the headsets.  We are on the road, mine is working and Larry's just quits.  Glad we are having all these issues before we get out on the Run.  Then we will be able to handle all issues quickly. We go to our next stop and check things again.  There is another connection in the tour pack for power. Go figure, yet another piece. We must have hit it. Hahaha.  Reconnected and all were good the rest of the day.

We are heading to Petrified Forest National Park.  It was going to take about 4 hours.  Here are some of the sites.  I LOVE the beauty in this country. 

                                                Clouds sitting right on top of the mountains.

                                                        Love the cloud in NM and AZ.

Cross into New Mexico.

                                                LONG roads.  Straight and seemingly endless.

Love the colors!!

This guy was just out there walking around.  I believe this is an appaloosa.

Finally arrived.

Fun Fact:

Differences between National Parks and National Forests:

• Purpose: National Parks are highly vested in preservation, while National Forests are managed for multiple purposes including timber, recreation, grazing, and wildlife
• Resource Use: National parks aim to keep natural and cultural resources untouched, while national forests are managed to create healthier usable resource

There are some fun facts throughout the park.  I will try and keep them brief.

Here is our first look at the park.  

Colors are pretty cool, but the pics do not do it justice.

All the stops we make in the park have the formations below what I will call ground level.  

Here is what you see in between stops.  Just flat. 

 Then all of a sudden it drops down.

This is a Painted Desert overlook.

Here is a 1932 Studebaker that sits where the famous Route 66 once cut through the park.  

The guys had a lot of fun figuring out some of the part that remained.

At the next stop, this crow was sitting on the car.  I guess he was tired flying and needed a ride.

Another stop is Newspaper rock.  Pretty wild that these are out in the open, not in caves.

Zoomed in.

Larry said this looked like someone took a red marker and just painted the rocks.

Looks almost fake.

This is Blue Mesa.  I am not sure where the blue came from.  

It is definitely not blue, but cool formations.

We like to guess what the formations look like.  Here it looks like a lady on the right, holding a camera, taking a picture of her husband.  OK, OK....work with me here.  Use your imagination. 👍

We headed down a path to get the lower level.  

Here is a switch back that is pretty cool to walk down.

At the bottom, we actually saw a piece of petrified wood.

 

These are a lot of pieces of Petrified wood.

Next is what is called Agate Bridge. Hope you can read this.

Pretty amazing on the age of the tree.

Jasper Forest.  Wow!!!  the petrified pieces are everywhere.

All the little dots are pieces of wood.

Crystal Forest has many petrified logs that glimmer with quartz crystals.

Lesson for the day.

This was a great way to describe how a tree gets petrified and how long it takes.  

REALLY LONG!!!

We end the day with this.

After dinner, this is what we were blessed with.

Destination: Holbrook, AZ

Temp: 40-72

Route: CR141, CR140 (Changes to NM170), I64, NM371, County 5, US 491, I40

Total miles: 289

                            Herperus, CO