Stopover - Painted Desert/Petrified Forest

On our way from Albuquerque to Flagstaff we made three stops, the first being to the Petrified Forest National Park. The park consists of a 28 mile drive with pull-offs along the way where you can stop and take pictures.

The first 6 miles of the drive was through the Painted Desert. It was just pure stunning landscape full of a million colors which change as the sun hits it at different angles and as shadows cross from the clouds. It was beautiful!



Then we traveled a few more miles down the road and arrived at a section that was similar to the painted desert only the colors were much darker and more gray. Scattered among the dark dunes were petrified wood fragments. We're talking 225 million year old fossilized wood that pre-dates dinosaurs so it's kinda neat.