From Mesa Verde we drove to Four Corners National Monument. It's the only place in the country where four states all touch at one point... and the only time I'll ever be ok with the boys being in two different states than me ; )
(Charlie with Eli)
We knew that we had a lot of driving ahead of us, but we decided to stop at Petrified Forest National Park (and Painted Desert National Park) anyway. I was expecting a real forest - though I don't know why - Petrified Forest is in Arizona, in the desert. I didn't have high hopes and wasn't really expecting to like it very much, but I was pleasantly surprised. We arrived at the park at 5:05pm and it closed at 6:00. We had a 20 mile drive in the park (meaning we couldn't drive very fast) and wanted to complete a .8 mile trail with the boys. Since we had the park to ourselves, we felt safe leaving the boys in the car and sprinting to and from the car and and overlooks to get a good look at the Painted Desert portion of the park.
At Newspaper Rock, we saw the park's most dense collection of petroglyphs. It took us awhile to even figure out what we were supposed to be looking for!
Crystal Forest was the trail recommended to us. It was a .8 mile paved trail and we could push the boys in the stroller - but what we didn't account for was the wind. It was intense! Petrified wood is unbelievable! From a distance it looks like fallen down tree stumps, but up close they contain the most amazing colors and look and feel like crystals. I don't know how it happened, but what started as wood turned into brilliance!
(Owen)
Though it's highly illegal, you wouldn't believe how badly we wanted to take a piece of the wood. Good thing we didn't - they inspect your car before you leave! It was an extremely long drive home, but we really enjoyed everything we saw and did and love taking advantage of living in the west.
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