And before leaving hospitable Arizona, let's recall a few more of our past sketches.
The pursuit of the unknown and the beautiful. Petrified wood.
…and Arizona again.
"Steppe and steppe all around" and various advertising slogans from the local natives.
Advertising is the engine of trade!
Of course, we could take a walk, but we don’t have much time, and to be honest, we’re not big fans of all kinds of round dances, matryoshka dolls, song and dance ensembles of the peoples of the North, South, West, East and… other sprawling cranberries.
Oops! We almost missed it. They're distracting us, you see, with all sorts of Navajo exotica. The long-awaited right turn. As one of the Vladim Vladimirovichs once said: "I'll go right. Very good!"
And finally, the Visitor Center.
A pleasant surprise. It turns out that to get to Petrified Forest Park itself, you need to travel through the previously unknown Painted Desert, then drive over Highway 40, and only then behold the beauty of the petrified forest. All together—a mere 146 square miles… now… 380 square kilometers.
In fact, before setting out in search of the unknown, one should study the upcoming journey from all possible sources.
"Preliminary transition preparation" was the name of this activity in my previous life on the bridge. Where can I find such normal people now? There's no time for any culinary delights.
Forward! And with songs...
The impressions were even more surprising for unprepared clients. A fantastic picture! The obvious is incredible!
"Our footprints will remain on the dusty paths of distant planets..."
"And on Mars apple trees will bloom…"
By the way, locals believe you should come here not in October, when some citizens are in trouble. Come on! But in late spring, when the vegetation comes alive and everything is covered in a carpet of flowers. 600-700 thousand tourists visit these places annually. And they know better. Ha! What are our times like? We'll come in the spring.
I could post a few dozen more photos of this desert, but the trumpet calls! It's time to move on. And our camel has already become stale. The desert is a desert, the oases are oases, but as the song goes:
“…it’s already five to twelve,” and we… that is… aren’t even halfway there yet.
And we still have 28 miles to travel along the "dusty paths" of the Petrified Forest. Forward, our ship of the desert! We glanced back, just in case. Nope, everything was in place. And, as usual, an endless train along the highway.
It looks like it's the 21st century after all. It's a relief. Oh, and I can even see the pyramids in the distance.
Just like the pyramids. Holy shit. And you don't even have to go to Egypt. The desert and... pyramids, pyramids, pyramids.
And what is the scientific community looking at? Where are the excavations? A direct connection between times, peoples, and continents. After all, the Aztec leader Tutankhamun ibn Hotspur could very well be lying here. And the last of the Mohicans should be sought nearby.
This was all a digression. Let's move on to...
...let's move on to...well, to begin with...to Nekrasov N.A. "Where did the firewood come from?"
"From the forest, apparently..."
A forest of aspen, birch and other arhuacaria trees rustled harshly here 225 million years ago...
Wow! Memories and an eyewitness account…
The biblical and other global floods destroyed this grace and buried this entire prehistoric botanical garden under the geological layers of time.
And this is at an altitude of almost a couple of kilometers above sea level...
What is it that has accumulated there in the underworld?
From tree to stone. Educational program.
…and the wood residue was transformed into various minerals. And various chemical elements (carbon, chromium, copper, iron, cobalt, manganese…) from the periodic table colored them in various shades of the color palette.
Source: travel.ru
