petrified forest national park

Friends, you may remember that long ago, we made a promise to the boys: When each boy turns 13, he gets a special trip to the destination of his choice. It's just a trip for the new teenager and his parents, and no brothers are allowed.

Well, the time is upon us again: Max turns 13 next week.

He had a hard time figuring out exactly where he wanted to go. His first choice was Portland (we heartily approved that choice), but it's cold in early February, and he wanted to go somewhere warm. For a while, we thought we would fly to Las Vegas, then drive to Death Valley, but eventually he decided he wasn't too excited about that. Finally, we came up with a plan, and now we're off adventuring.

We flew into Phoenix late last night, got our rental car, checked into our hotel, and slept for about four hours before hitting the road early this morning. Our first stop was the meteor crater near Winslow. It's super-touristy and more than a little cheesy, but still, it's a METEOR CRATER A MILE WIDE. We got there right when the place opened, so there weren't many people, and we had plenty of time to admire the views.

Back on the road, we headed east on I-40 to Petrified Forest National Park. We weren't really sure what to expect. I mean, we read about it, but all three of us were still like, "Oh, so there are logs on the ground? Sure, that's cool, I guess." Trust me when I say that we were not prepared for just how cool it really turned out to be. Petrified wood is gorgeous and fascinating! And there were cactuses!

We started at the south end of the park, in the Rainbow Forest. We walked all along the Giant Logs Trail, and saw the biggest fossil log, Old Faithful, which is 10 feet in diameter. We spent a lot of time getting up close and personal with the petrified wood. It's so nice to be able to actually touch it and get really close and examine it at leisure.

We continued north through the Blue Mesa, past The Tepees, and stopped again to see Newspaper Rock, which is covered by petroglyphs. We were pretty far above the rock itself, but I was surprised by how good the views were.

The northern part of the park is the Painted Desert, so named because the different mineral concentrations give the mountains their colors. We walked along a trail that led into the mountains for a while, and fell for the oldest trick in the book: a fake lizard. Ahead of us on the trail, people were taking pictures and talking excitedly about something on the ground, so we walked up cautiously with camera at the ready. We took pictures of the lizard on the ground, along with the other people, then I got a little suspicious when it didn't slither away, so I put my foot right up against it ... and discovered it was a rubber toy. In my defense, it looked real! All the people thought so. Anyway, all us tourists had a hearty laugh, and one lady ended up taking the lizard home as her souvenir from the trip.

At one of the vistas, we also ran into a raven that was completely unbothered by human activity, but I can assure you that at least it was real.

On the way out of the park, we stopped along historic Route 66 and took some pictures of Max by a scenic car carcass. Then we headed south for a few hours through amazing mountain passes (I'm so sad I didn't take any pictures/videos -- it was beautiful and more than a little terrifying!) to get to Tucson. We got to town just after dark, and with just enough time to check into our hotel before we headed out to meet Mike's Aunt Cookie for dinner. Dinner was delicious (just ask Max to tell you about those tacos sometime!) and it was wonderful to meet Cookie and her partner, Dennis. It really feels special when we take a trip somewhere and are able to spend time with family or friends we haven't seen in a long time.