The Petrified Forest National Park

On our way to the Petrified Forest National Park, we had to make a stop at a rest area

 I began to think that we were not in Minnesota anymore.

This sign proved it!

There are lots of things to see within the Petrified Forest National Park. We started from the south entrance and proceeded by auto to the north entrance on I-40.

At the south entrance there are exhibits of fossilized animals of various sorts.  In their "backyard" is an exhibit of fossilized or petrified trees.

Some are huge.

Sue photographed this guy at the base of the tree.

We came across this field of petrified logs as we drove north through the park.

Another large tree in the park some 32 inches in diameter.

Other views of the park.

This formation is known as the teepees.

The telephone poles without wires denote Route 66 through the park with I-40 in the background.  Some parts of the old route are available for hiking.

This is said to be a 1932 Studebaker, left over from the folks who passed this way from Oklahoma to California in the 1930's.  One may read "Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck for a feeling of what these travelers went through.  

This mural by a contemporary Hopi artist denotes ancestors traveling from their village at six o'clock counterclockwise to a salt lake and their trip home.