Driving Across the United States day 5

The fifth day began with visiting Petroglyph National Monument just outside of Albuquerque, a city whose name I can now spell without looking it up. While the petroglpyhs themselves are interesting, I found the best part of the park was the short hike to the top of one of the mesas to see an awesome view of Albuquerque and the surrounding landscape. The lava rock fields that constitute the national monument were formed by the cinder cones that are atop the mesa. The volcano’s discharge covers much of the tops of the mesas and spills over the edge into the folded canyons where the images are carved.

Next up was the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest in Arizona. Though the petrified wood is quite striking, I found the painted desert to be more breathtaking. The majority of the painted desert scenes are North of Interstate 40, displaying a vivid array of color stripes across the canyon walls and cones. I hadn’t thought about the fact that the landscape is formed by wind and water erosion, but it’s unsurprising that the wind in the entire area is constantly gusting.

After seeing the first park in Arizona, we headed toward Flagstaff and then North to the Grand Canyon. We booked a room at a hotel just outside of the park and tried to drive in to get dinner at the main lodge but failed because they were completely full, which is probably the case nearly year round at the canyon. In the few minutes we were walking around the lodge, however, we were within 10 feet of the rim, a fact we didn’t realize until the next day upon seeing it in the light the next day.