Arizona-Gold Canyon-16 May 2011

Photo 1: Wildflower--the roadside is a mass of white, blue, red, yellow, and orange flowers.

Photo 2: In the Painted Desert

We are nearing the end of our holiday and it has been spectacular. The weather was a bit cool the first couple of days but other than a few showers, we can't complain about not having enough sun. We are on the 'red-eye' tomorrow night and will get home early Wednesday morning.

In the past couple of days we've been to Canyon de Chelly, Petrified Forest National Park, and the Painted Desert. The highways between these fascinating places have revealed some wonderful and unexpected sights.

After having been to the Grand Canyon, The Arches NP, Glen Canyon and other places, Canyon de Chelly was a bit of a let-down but still worth the trip. The park is next to the town of Chinle and it was the town more than the park that created some thoughful discussions. It's in the heart of the Navajo Nation Reservation and other than tourists, is totally populated by natives. A great deal of effort has been made to built new homes to replace some of the terrible places they have lived in but unfortunately, as families move in to the new homes the old places are taken over by other people or left to deteriorate even more. Most natives not living in reserve homes live in trailers. I often wonder why someone hasn't come up with some kind of 'crusher' that can reduce one to a block of garbage...like those crushing machines they have for cars. Chinle has a beautiful big high school. Almost in it's backyard is the Youth Detention Centre. Clearly, there have been lots of good things happening in Chinle but I have to say I was left with a feeling of hopelessness.

The Petrified Forest National Park was amazing!! The visitors centre had a great short movie which provided some history and well worth watching. When Arizona (& the US) was part of one main land mass (255 million yrs ago), all of this area was part of a tropical forest. During a major climate change, a mega flood took thousands of trees out to sea and the trees sunk to the bottom where they were eventually covered with silt, dirt, volcanic ash, etc. The trees petrified but chemical changes also turned them into stone which also included precious stones. Over time, they have come to the suface and it's incredible to see what looks like a huge tree only it's stone! The NPs are very strict about removing it from their area but there are private companies which buy digging rights from citizens outside the park so it's not hard to buy.

The Painted Desert was a sight for sore eyes as well as the soul. It's Mother Nature at her finest and each time we turned a corner as saw another colour combination set in a different setting we has to stop and just stare. This area is different again from other parts of the Painted Desert further west where the cliffs are higher and have even different colouring. It's one of my favourite parts of Arizona and I could do this trip again next year and be just as amazed.

There's a huge, yellow full moon tonight. We are both a bit tired today and opted for an early check-in at a Best Western with a nice heated pool...or we might have gotten back in the car and found a nice hill with a big saguaro cactus for a photo op. Tomorrow we are going to a wonderful desert arboretum to get some photos of the various cactus in bloom. All of the wildflowers are in bloom and the saguaro cactus are in bloom as well.

No more blogging for this trip. Thanks for enjoying the journey with us. xx