Southwest 07: Walnut Canyon, Petrified Forest, and the Painted Desert

Walnut Canyon

Looking across Walnut Canyon at one of the cliff dwellings

The Sinagua Indians built their houses under natural rock overhangs

A small door, but apparently these Indians were only about 5'5" tall

The walls of their homes were made of mud and limestone

On the dry side of the canyon (lower right) you had desert plants. On the wet side there were things like pine trees.

Petrified Forest / Painted Desert

Here we are now at Petrified Forest Nat'l Park. Those are pieces of petrified wood.

Here's a big "tree". They're actually not trees at all anymore. Millions of years ago they were covered by sediment, where they slowly rotted. Silica took the place of organic material, and over time it became quartz. The different colors come from the impurities in the silica.

A closer look. Unfortunately the area has been pillaged continuously since it was discovered over a hundred years ago, so a lot of the good rocks are gone. They even inspect some cars on the way out making sure that you didn't take anything home with you.

We saw a few of these guys (collared lizard, I think). Look how long his tail is relative to the rest of his body.

Different rock, different lizard

Petrified wood with the Painted Desert in the background

225 million years ago this must've been some tree

The badlands of the Painted Desert

The Agate Bridge is a petrified log that crosses this little chasm. As you can probably tell, it's now supported by concrete.

The Tepees

Petroglyphs from a long time ago. I actually took this one from quite a distance -- thank you 12X zoom lens!

More petroglyphs

And one more for good measure

Painted Desert

Pretty amazing scenery!

Up next: Santa Fe!