Southwest Road Trip - Day Two

Enjoyed our complimentary breakfast before checking out of the Holiday Inn in Holbrook, AZ. Our first stop was Petrified Forest National Park. I've heard about this park for a long time, but was never sure what it was all about. I knew there would be wood that had turned to stone, but I didn't realize just how much of it there was! As you can see from the picture, there are big tree trunk size pieces all around. We took a cool 1 mile loop hike that walked us through a badlands type setting we lots of petrified wood.
We did two caches in park. The Petrified TeePees cache was a virtual that took us to pyramid shaped rock formations. The Painted Desert cache took us to the Painted Desert which is actually on the north end of Petrified Forest. The Painted Desert boasts the puriest air quaility in all of North America.

Next we headed north for Hubbell Trading Post Nation Monument. The post is the oldest continuously operating trading post on the Navajo Nation. We had a picnic lunch and Alex made friends with a young German Shepard dog that was roaming the park looking for food and attention. Alex named him Hubbell and begged me to let him come home with us....ah...No! We did a quick cache here as well. Hubbell Trading Post 2 for 1 cache allowed me to get credit for a cache and a benchmark. This is the first benchmark I've seen that is not on the ground, but rather on the side of the visitor center.


Our final park of the day was Canyon de Chelly National Monument (pronounced De Shay). This was the highlight of the day for all three of us. We only had time for a short hike to Spider Rock overlook. As you can see of the picture to the right, the views are spectacular. The boys really got sucked in to the serenity and beauty of this place. Canyon de Chelly is known for its shear rock walls, Anasasi cliff dwellings and Petroglyphs. The park is also still a working Navajo community sustained by farming on the canyon floor. There are also truck tours available from the Navajo's that take you down into the canyon and upclose to the dwellings and Petroglyphs. There was one cache in the park called Canyon de Chelly - Spider Rock Overlook. Not much question about what prominant landmark is featured in this virtual. We left the park just before sunset and headed for our next hotel, The Comfort Inn in Gallop, NM.