Day 3 - Tuesday, June 24

Happy Tuesday!!! We left Flagstaff early in the morning and drove to the Petrified Forest National Park. Cheryl says, "It's a forest right? Where's the trees?" LOL! Yep, nothing gets by that girl.


The Petrified Forest National Park is a drive through park with lots of overlooks and a few hiking trails. Here we are on the trail with the highest density of petrified trees.

That's it... just a few chunks of trees on the ground. There were some beautiful views of the Painted Desert.

They not only had rocks, but a few dinosaurs too.

We left Petrified Forest around noon, and headed to Canyon De Chelly National Monument. Jim heard about this place from a man that rides on his bus. We got in around 5pm (that's with a 1hr time change). There was a jeep leaving for the park, so we jumped on! The only way to get through the park is via 4-wheel drive... you can see why...

This is us waiting for our Navajo Guide, Oscar, to get back after pulling this guy out of the park.

You can see further on up the canyon, it's not so desolate.

Chelly is riddled with dozens of Anasazi, Hopi, and Navajo ruins. They are all over the cliffs, and we were able to drive right up to them. We can't enter them though, because they aren't reinforced and restored like the ruins at Mesa Verde. Also, there are petroglyphs scattered around the walls, and our guide was able to interpret some of them for us.

After our 4hr tour, we headed for dinner and a swim. Now it's time for bed. Good-night all! Tomorrow we are headed into our target destination... Mesa Verde National Park!