Petrified Forest is a pretty neat little National Park! We spent the first half of Monday exploring the colorful petrified wood and the rainbow-striped hills. This park was small, which y’all know I prefer, and packed a punch. For others like me, who don’t know much about petrified wood, it comes from ancient trees that have turned to stone! 200 million years ago, a tree might fall into a river. Over time, changing water levels (probably due to flooding) quickly covered the tree in silt, preserving it from decay. Eventually, trace amounts of minerals like iron and manganese, would replace the organic matter of the tree, preserving the look of the tree trunk, but hardening into stone. Erosion would eventually wear away the layers of silt covering the tree and, ta da: petrified wood. Wild! Those different minerals also provide a little splash of color in the petrified pieces.
All of the frontcountry trails in Petrified Forest are short so we hiked all but one of them. My favorite was the Blue Mesa trail which took us down into the valley where we were surrounded by hills banded with evidence of our changing Earth. We also saw a pedestal rock, which is a price of petrified wood that sits on a column of dirt. Eventually, the dirt will give way and the wood will tumble and likely shatter, but this one was still intact.
We also saw a rock face full of petroglyphs!
We finished with a short trail in the Painted Desert, then started our drive to Farmington, NM.
In Farmington, we stayed with Sasha’s parents (remember Sasha, the friend I blame for making me want a llama?). Nikki and Joe (who insisted we not call them Mr. And Mrs. Jaquez) treated us to a delicious dinner of chile relleno and homemade tortillas. We got to help make the tortillas and promptly copied down Joe’s recipe for future use. PSA: homemade tortillas are waaaaay better than anything you can find in the store. I also snagged a picture of Nikki’s chile relleno recipe because it was so yummy.
Tuesday morning, Joe showed us his horizontal bee hives–which I will definitely be implementing on our homestead–and his blacksmith’s forge. He gave us a blacksmithing demo and even let me try my hand at the hammer and anvil! On the “s” hook we made, you can definitely tell which end is his and which is mine, but I’m still pretty proud of my first attempt at blacksmithing.
We enjoyed some tamales for lunch, and hit the road for Angel Fire.
Thank you, Nikki and Joe, for a wonderful stay!
Until next time,
Charli