Displacing to NE AZ and Uraling/T'Dubing through the Petrified Forest National Park

March 27,  Sunday

The sunrise near Ajo, AZ turned out pretty good:

I left the campsite shortly after 7AM and had dumped tanks in Ajo by 7:29 AM.  It was a long day of driving, taking about a 1/2 tank of gas.  

Along the way, I transited through the San Carlos Apache and White Mountain Apache Reservations.  Nice scenery, at times it was like driving down into a smaller version of the Grand Canyon and up again.  Too bad no camp sites near or in these reservations that were obvious to me anyways.

I arrived at the Petrified Forest Museum/Gift Shop (not associated with the Park Service) a little after 3PM.

There's 6 pay sites on one side of the museum/gift shop with electricity, cost is around $16/day.  The other side has a parking lot that's free for RVs, so long as they're self-contained.  In other words, you've got a toilet inside.

If you want to just look at petrified wood trunks and such, this place uses them as border markers!  Heck, you can apparently buy petrified wood from these folks.  You can't pick up anything within the park confines by the way, but here on private property it's OK.

March 28, Monday.

It would be solidly overcast all day, with strong winds.

This is not the park you want to visit and take pictures at during an overcast day!

Perhaps I've become a bit jaded, or there were too many people around at times, but I didn't really enjoy this park that much.  Perhaps if it had been sunny, but the gloominess of the weather was too pervasive I think.

It's about 28 miles on a paved road that runs roughly north/south through the park.  The north end is on I-40 and the south end is about 20 miles SE of the town of Holbrook, AZ.  

Agate Bridge, the concrete support was put in 1917

People used to walk on top of it, not anymore.

The Tepees

Studebaker near a marker for US Highway 66

Near Pintado Point

I don't recall where I took the next two pictures, sorry.

Views along the loop for Blue Mesa/Blue Forest

There's a one mile long walking loop in Blue Mesa area, this place would be worth returning to when the light is right, perhaps during a sunrise or sunset.

Newspaper Rock:

Can't see much from the overlook, I needed to use

the zoom feature on the Sony HX80:

I think this was part of Crystal Forest, not sure:

The visitor center near the southern entrance had a nice set of dinosaur and not-dinosaur bone exhibits:

In back of the visitor center, there's a 1/2 mile or so loop of petrified logs and such.  I didn't walk the whole thing, was getting blisters from the walking I did at Blue Mesa.  I think, the below tree trunk is called Old Faithful:

Petrified wood trunk section

Mid-afternoon, I walked to the gift shop (not really a museum) and perused their wares.  Some nice stuff, a bit pricey for me, and sorry but pics not allowed.

A display outside the gift shop, guess this guy 

took on too big a souvenir!

Yep, $2 a pound folks, 10 lbs. minimum

There was a sign stating all rocks for sale were

collected on private property.

Around 4PM, the sun started to peek through the heavy cloud cover which had dogged me all day.  I got on Yagi and rode back to Blue Mesa Overlook.

The sun was shining, briefly, when I got there so I hurried for these two shots:

I then waited for perhaps 15 minutes for the next break in the clouds for this pano and series of pics:

I think you'll agree things look much better with some sunlight!  

Following two pics are of petrified wood trunk sections used as border markers in the gift store area parking lots.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler, overcast and with slight rain showers.  I'm thinking I'll displace to Canyon de Chelly instead of staying another day.