Road Trip: Arizona

We left a few days before Dan's birthday and headed out to New Mexico. Instead of traveling on the highway, we decided to pass through Tonto National Park, check out the Petrified Forest, and then get to Albuquerque in the evening.

Of course right as we left there was the typical desert scenery that you get used to spending time in Phoenix. Personally, I love desert plant life (from a distance) so I enjoyed the view as soon as we left populated areas.

Pretty soon after leaving town, the elevation started to slowly climb and the plant life started to change. More and more trees, less cacti. At one point, on the left side of the road it was forest like and on the right side it was desert like.

We continued to wind upward and quite suddenly I felt like we were back in California. Oh no! We went the wrong way!! Now, don't get mixed up. The view was more forest like, but it wasn't like Yosemite. Think more Jamestown, valley forest. For those of you not from California, here is an example.

The drive was easy and before we knew it we were out of the forest and back down to desert level.

Soon thereafter we were at the Petrified Forest. I was rather disappointed. It wasn't scary at all. But it was an interesting stop.

Through science and a lot of time, trees that have been around since dinosaurs roamed the earth are still around.

While not quite trees anymore, they sure do look like trees. Being petrified, they are now hard as stone.

The park itself was huge, but from what I could see there was only a small section of said park that actually had these petrified trees.

The northern area of the park was still beautiful in it's own right though. The colors and hills were breathtaking.

We enjoyed lunch in the park and continued on to New Mexico!