Petrified Forest and Meteor Crater

  April 24

Linda and I are spending 2 nights at Homolovi Ruins State Park just a few miles outside of Winslow, Arizona. We came here today after 3 days in Phoenix. While we’re here we are going to the Petrified Forest National Park and Meteor Crater.

The 3 days in Phoenix went by to fast, we visited with some old friends and the visits were very special memories of our trip. Both of my old colleagues helped me be successful in my business career and in the process we created some lifelong memories and friendships.  It was such a treat to see you folks. On Monday we did a day trip up to Flagstaff for a visit to Lava River Cave a little north of Flagstaff. It’s an undeveloped lava tube that runs almost a mile and has quite a bit of climbing over rocks both in the tube and as you descend . It took us both a lot of time to get down about a third of the tube and at that point we decided to not press our luck and we turned around. We got out without twisting an ankle or doing some other damage to ourselves and we had a great experience as well. It was one of those situations where you know you’re getting older and it sucks.

These ruins we are camping by were occupied in the 1200 and 1300’s by a group who were part of the Hopi tribe and that makes these scared grounds for the Hopi. The wind here is hard to imagine, it blows very hard at certain times of the day.  We were awoken sometime in the early morning by more than one coyote howling and barking with or at each other. They can wake us up anytime.

April 25

We went to Petrified Forest National Park, #41 and Meteor Crater today. I’ve posted some new photos of each. The Painted Desert is also part of the National Park. We both enjoyed Meteor Crater more, they have an impressive visitor center and we went on a mile walk along the rim with a guide and group and that was great and informative. It was one of those places we’ve both wanted to see.

After that we spent some time “Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona” and the sunset was "such a fine site to see" and on top of that we were on THE  Route 66.  Wonder how many of you will recognize the picture of the Wigwam Motel.

April 26

On the road again.  Today I passed the 4000 mile mark in the trip. Time to slow the pace way down. Drove through the Navajo Nation today in NE Arizona through high wind and some rain, my first of the trip that I’ve had to drive in. We have opted for a hotel tonight in order to do some laundry, have wifi and get an early start to our next campground in the Needles District of Canyonlands Nat’l Park. We will spend the next 2 weeks in Utah and I will be terribly disappointed if I don’t come out of this area with some kickass photos. No pressure mon.

I don’t know what to expect in online access for awhile. Thanks for the responses it helps keep a bit of the “at home” feeling and I can sure use it. 

See new photos at  https://picasaweb.google.com/103943218564105837637