The Grand Canyon

Pictures just don't show the awesome beauty of the grand, Grand Canyon.

 

Awesome!

So beautiful!

Too Awesome for words. You've just got to visit the Grand Canyon to see for yourselves.

 

This is our whole motley crew overlooking the Grand Canyon.

Petrified Forest

This is the Petrified Forest where there are many logs of the petrified wood. Some were very colorful, depending on the particular crystal  created at the time it was petrified. It was illegal to pick any pieces of the wood, but pieces of all sizes and colors could be purchased at various gift shops here and all over Arizona. We were able to afford a couple pieces from the owners of our campsite.

These particular logs were quite large and beautiful.

This log has been reinforced with a concrete foundation. It was very large. Created from a fallen petrified tree across a span of rock. It is called the Agate Bridge.

This is a section of petrified log found by an individual who polished it and donated it to the National Park. It weighs over 800 poundsl

More of the petrified forest. Joe and Sue stopped for a picture.

 

Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

Here is Bob in front of the Painted Desert Inn. The original façade was made of the petrified wood. It proved to be unstable and was reconstructed by the CCC as you see it here in the adobe style architecture. There was lots to see inside. The architecture inside was awesome.

This area in the Painted Desert was called the Teepees. You can see why.

More of the teepee structures.

 

 

Joe and Sally. The Painted Desert behind us.

Wish I could enlarge this picture. The Pueblo Indians drew pictures on the rocks. There were several areas of the writings and drawings, so called the Newspaper Rocks. Sorry, they can't be seen in my picture, but they are there. Get out your magnifying glass.

Bob took this picture. It shows the desperate plant trying to grow through the very dry earth.

This old car apparently was just left here along the old Route 66. If you look close, you can see the empty telephone poles that lined Route 66 in it's time. It is now part of the Painted Desert.

 

Arizona

This was a typical terrain seen as we were leaving New Mexico.

This was the campsite we stayed for 2 nights. Behind me is the famous Route 66. There are many areas where you can still drive on it. Can often be seen in areas right along I-40 on our way to the Grand Canyon.

Our first night at Root 66 campsite, we all chipped in and had a wonderful steak dinner. Joe and Sue bought a rib roast and made 6 big fat juicy steaks. Shin made the world's best home-made biscuits.(Wish I had one right now.) We had corn on the cob, fresh green beans, baked potatoes and coleslaw.  We had great weather.

Here we are at the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert Center. We saw some Awesome terrain. I assumed all my life, that the Painted Desert was different colored sandy areas, but I was surprised.

 

This was in the pink area of the Painted Desert. Note the volcano looking area in the middle of the picture.

 

 

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The botanical gardens were beautiful. I even recognized many of the plants. Everything was well cared for, but our favorite part was the cacti arboretum. There were hundreds of exotic varieties of cacti. Some even in bloom.

Many of the cacti were in bloom
 



Huge Cacti Arboretum







 

Day at the Albuquerque Zoo

We had a beautiful day to visit the great Albuquerque Zoo, Botanical Gardens and Aquarium. First we took a 30 minute train ride to the zoo. The conductor was x-military so all our guys had plenty of stories to share on the ride over.

 

 

My favorite part of the zoo was the reptile exhibit. Most of us are deathly afraid of snakes, but are fascinated by them behind the thick glass.

 

Big Yellow Snake
 

There were many baby animals, but the cutest were the day-old baby giraffe and the baby hippo.

 

 

 

 

More Old Town

Side show

All around the center of town were these very tall figures for the festival celebration.

There were bands, music and dancers. We watched these small girls swirling their pretty skirts.








Really tall figures
 

 Shin, Jack, Sue, Joe and Bob. The whole group except for Sally taking the picture. We had a beautiful day to shop and enjoy the festivities.