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Dave & Dru's Travels |
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Sedona and the Petrified Forest |
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I do believe I have stumbled upon the modern, high tech means of boring the heck out of people with trip photographs. Replacing the old-fashioned, dreaded slide show routine, here's an electronic version of our recent trip to Arizona. Cheer up though, unlike the olden days at least you have the advantage of skipping through it all and I'll never know.
We left San Diego on Wednesday, May 7, charging eastward on I-8 to Gila Bend and then on up to Phoenix where we stayed overnight. The next morning we continued to the Sedona area and settled into the motel. The scene from our motel room is on the left. It was quite spectacular to sit on our balcony enjoying nature's splendor.
As an aside, one of the uncertainties in visiting the desert is the weather. On our last trip we stopped briefly at the Grand Canyon, just north of here. Even though it was late August, we just about froze. Anticipating desert heat, we were wearing tee shirts, shorts and sandles. What we encountered was rain and temperatures in the low 40s! Alertly learning from that experience, this time we took lots of long-sleeved wools and flannels. The temperature was in the 80s and the sun shined brightly the whole trip. Hot, hot, hot. So, the few long-sleeved tee shirts and cotton shirts we took got recycled to the maximum that people down wind of us could stand.
On Thursday we mostly got our bearings, just driving around the immediate area to see what there was to see. And naturally we strolled the sidewalks of uptown Sedona not letting any of the shops escape our close scrutiny. The bad thing about driving to one's vacation spot is it is difficult to use the "we don't have enough space to pack it" excuse when shopping. Tlaquepaque is an interesting collection of artists' shops, although a bit upscale.
Friday and Saturday we ventured into the surrounding area sightseeing. There is an abundance of prehistoric ruins in the area. They are believed to have been built and occupied between 800 A.D. and 1200 A.D. Why they were abandoned is a mystery that remains unsolved, although quite naturally there is an abundance of speculation. Among it all there is an amazing amount of petroglyphs, pictures chiseled or scrapped into rocks as opposed pictographs where they are painted. On the right is a photograph of petroglyphs at a cliff out west of Sedona.
It is truly astonishing that such a structure could be built so high up the cliff, accessed only by a series of ladders from one level to the next. The name is a misnomer. Early Europeans incorrectly thought that Montezuma had come north and built the structure.
Why the native Americans thought it necessary to build the structures so high up on the cliff is also a mystery. The first notion that comes to mind is for defense, but what is believed to be food storage caves are located just below the "castle," hardly an optimum design if defense was the major concern. Plus, it seems that it would be a simple matter for attackers to starve the residents into surrender.
In addition, there are smaller cliffside structures located about a hundred yards to the left. These are not nearly as elegant as the main structure nor are they located as high up the cliff. Perhaps these were built by the lazy ones in the tribe, by those with a fear of heights or maybe these folks just lived on the other side of the tracks (cliffs). Who knows, but it makes for wonderful speculation.
Nearby, just to the north of Montezuma Castle is Montezuma Wells, apparently named by the same Europeans. This is a sink hole about 100 feet deep and 800-1000 feet across. There is a spring at the bottom which produces a million and a half gallons of water a day, which flows out through a crevice into a nearby river. Dwellings were also built here, just underneath the top of the rim as well as down at the bottom. The ones at the top can be seen in the picture on the right. They were accessed by ropes or ladders from above. There are also ruins of other structures in the area that were essentially constructed out in the open, easily accessible. A trail leads down to the river where one can view the water exiting from the crevice and flowing on into the river.
Evidence has been found which leads archeaologists to believe that the occupants of the region were productive farmers, constructing networks of ditches to irrigate their fields. Again, why the area subsequently was totally abandoned is unknown.
Nearby is one of the most impressive groupings of petroglyphs we found. It's called the "V bar V" (for the V-V ranch on which it is located) and oddly enough is maintained by the U. S. Forestry Service rather than by the National Park Service. Apparently when the owner of the V-V ranch died, he willed the petroglyph site to the Forestry Service and they chose to retain it rather than conveying it to the Park Service.
An example of the petroglyphs is shown on the left. They are located at eye level along a small clift. There must be thousands located in an area no longer than fifty feet or so. One could literally spend hours examining them, all the time being closely watched by the Forestry Service person. Unfortunately, it is difficult to take pictures because of shadows, etc. Waiting for different lighting angles depending on location or visiting on a cloudy day might help.
Sunday, on our way from the Sedona area to the Grand Canyon, we diverted out to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. They are not exactly on the way. They are on I-40 about 100 miles east of Flagstaff. The visitors center is located just off I-40 at the north end of the park. The Painted Desert (seen on the right) is to the north and sweeps for miles nearly up to the Utah border. It is indeed a breathtaking scene. Each perspective seems to hold something new.
Leaving the scenic views of the Painted Desert, one then crosses over I-40 and drives south through the Petrified Forest. It's about a 30 mile drive. We thought it would take about an hour, but we took nearly four, since there was so much to stop and see. Again, there are ruins from early dwellers in the area. Also there are several sights loaded with petroglyphs. At one place called newspaper rock, there appears to be a petroglyph of Kokopelli. Unfortunately, the park's design does not permit a close scrutiny, but Dru's keen eye reassures us that indeed it is he.
Probably the best collection of petrified wood is at the southern end of the park at a place called Long Logs. An example of the size and grandeur of the petrified logs is shown on the right. It's at the northern end of a one mile hiking trail through the logs. The largest log in the park is located about two miles away back across the parking lot on the other side of the museum. We didn't have time to see it since access requires another mile hike round trip.
We exited the park at the southern end onto U.S. 180 and headed back to Flagstaff and on to the Grand Canyon. That visit is on another page accessed by clicking below.
This part of Arizona east of Flagstaff is rather desolate. Yet, one of those inexplicable oddities of the trip is that it was out there in the middle of nowhere where we encountered the cheapest gas on our trip. Go figure.
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