A Long Day Across the Land of Enchantment

We started our day eating an average breakfast and then heading to the local Wal-Mart for supplies. After donating to the little league team and spending more money on food than anticipated, we hit the road. The scenery is unbelievable and wide open. It is nothing like we are use to!!! We spent 3 hours taking pictures on the road and eating the best Subway of our life (no kidding!!), before reaching the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. It took us a while to figure out what time it was since Arizona does not follow daylight savings time and on top of that we were already trying to adjust to the time change. We then started our 28 mile hike. Just kidding, it was a 28 mile scenic tour with hikes and overlooks along the way. The Painted Desert is one of the most gorgeous places we have ever seen. The colors and landscapes are beyond words.

We spent quite a while at Puerco Pueblo, the remains of a 100 room pueblo occupied from 1200-1400AD. We were lucky enough to have a ranger on site giving guided tours. She explained in detail the way people lived and Bo was the star of the class answering all of her questions correctly! The most interesting part was the petrogylphs left behind by the occupants of the pueblo. We were able to go out on the rocks to see up close views, this is usually not allowed but our ranger broke the rules for us! After leaving this trail, we drove through the petrified forest, making fun of the park ranger as he sat up high on rocks with binoculars making sure no one was stealing anything from the park. Bo and I pretended we were taking stuff and then looked up and waved at him! HEE HEE

After changing clothes and leaving the park, we drove on a 2 lane highway with a 65 MPH speed limit. Bo was amazed!! By the way, all interstates are 75mph. After driving 1.5 hours, we ended up at Meteor Crater in the middle of no where. The crater was over 4000 feet wide, 550 ft deep (It use to be 700 ft but erosion happens), and 2.5 miles in circumference. The floor of the crater is big enough to hold 20 football games at once with 2 million spectators filled around the rim. It is the first identified and most well preserved crater out of the 150 identified on Earth. Seeing this site was beyond belief. I had a mild panic attack climbing to top as Bo was bouncing up the stairs and standing at the edge. Then he went down to the overlook and yes, it was over the edge of the crater! My hands are sweating just writing this! The sunset overlooking the Arizona desert was the one of the best we've ever seen.

Back on the road we drove 35 minutest to Flagstaff for dinner at the Beaver St. Brewery and we thank Paul for GPS! Lori had a BBQ chicken oven roasted pizza and Bo had the meatloaf sandwich both accompanied by the local brew. The final leg of our trip was tough, we were tired, and our stomachs were full! We almost hit a family of elk, boy they were huge, and saw quite a few others. The drive took about 1.5 hours but we made it safely to the Grand Canyon!