Petrified Forest National Park

Salt River Canyon

Most of our day was spent heading north from Tucson on Highway 77. The highway is one of those very scenic highways with the countryside constantly changing from desert to canyons. We ended up going up and down quite a few times. The most spectacular was descending into the Salt River Canyon. We felt like we were heading down into the Grand Canyon, just not quite as deep. We stopped here for lunch because of the scenic views.

Rainbow Forest at Petrified Forest NP

We arrived in Hobrook, AZ about 3 PM and headed immediately to Petrified Forest National Park. At the Rainbow Forest Visitor Center we took the Giant Log Trail. Here there are petrified logs strewn about the valley. It had just finished raining so the rainbow colors really stood out as we walked this half mile trail. Further up the road, I hiked the Crystal Forest Trail – again the colors stood out. Some of the petrified wood, looked just like natural trees lying on the ground, until you approached closely on could see it was rock. We also stopped at the Agate Bridge, the pictures showed people crossing this petrified log in the 1880s. Today it is fortified by concrete (from 1917) and has broken into several pieces. Newspaper Rock along the road had a series of interesting petroglyphs, but it was hard to see without the telescope provided. We continued on the scenic road to viewpoints of the Painted Desert. Since it was approaching sunset, the reds of the desert really stood out. We left just before the gates closed at 6 PM. 

Painted Desert at sunset