Holbrook AZ 3-30-2019

Say good bye to Albuquerque NM and continue our adventures driving west. Before we leave this morning, we take some time to take a look at the Enchanted Trails RV Park display out front by the office of classic trailers and cars, it is a pretty fun collection. We have driven a couple of hours down the road and we cross in to AZ, a large National Park Sign that says Petrified Forest catches our eye and being a rock hound from my younger years this would make a great stop for us. When we turn in we had no idea how big this park is, 230 sq. miles. After checking in with the park rangers we start driving down the park road which is 23 miles long which also use’s Route 66 for part of it. We are in awe of the sights; every corner has a pull out with a different vista. We get to the Painted Desert Inn which was a working hotel and restaurant back in the late 30’s. It’s now a show piece for the park. The story of how this forest originated is fascinating, the forest was originally closer to the equator and as land masses moved up in to AZ it left the remains of a rainforest. For better description go to the link, Petrified Forest National Park. The park closes at 5:00 and you need to be out of the park if you are an RV(tent camping only). We drive to the end of the road where there are two tourist traps, the one where we will spend the night is Petrified Forest Gift Shop the other is Crystal Forest Gift Shop. There is no cell phone coverage here but we are thankful to see they have RV spaces with electricity as it will be cold tonight. We are looking forward to getting back in the park tomorrow morning to see the museum and do some more hikes.