Today we left the Grand Canyon area and headed to Holbrook Arizona. Holbrook is also on Route 66 as we found out when we arrived. We dropped off some laundry drove to the Petrified Forest. It was extremely windy, hearing accounts of anywhere from 36 to 90 miles per hour. Jim attempted to open the door at the entrance to the park and nearly had it ripped out of his hand. We decided to leave Aaron in the car until later.
After paying the park entry fee and handing out some putty, we headed into the park. Stopping at the first park building we entered and saw a short movie on the history of the park. Apparently over 1 ton of petrified wood is still taken from the park each month despite the warnings. In the area, there are plenty of shops selling the stuff from private lands around the park.
The power went out and came back on when we were in the building; the wind was causing havoc with the electricity supply in the area. We left the building for a short half mile walk. The wind seemed to be picking up pebbles the size of golf balls and pelting us with them. It was really sand, but they hurt when they hit us. We observed a small child being pulled inside by his mother, crying from the grit being forced into his pores. We talked, actually shouted over the wind, to another couple on the trail, they were from England. They took the high trail, we returned to the building on the faster low trail. Back in the visitor center we purchased some odds and ends. The English couple came in and said one of them had been blown over by a gust of wind.
We continued up the 30 mile road to the painted forest. The view was more of a sandstorm rather than a landscape of layered sedimentary rock. From time to time the sand would clear for 10 to 20 seconds and we would take a photo. From what we could see, the white, pink, and green layers in the rock certainly did make the painted forest a site to behold. We continued our drive, not stopping to hike due to the unusually high wind. We took Aaron out carefully and took some quick pictures at opportune locations. When exiting the park, two rangers were particularly pleased to receive putty.
Exiting the park we worked our way back west to Holbrook, stopping at a rock shop to buy rocks. There was quite a selection of petrified word and more Indian jewelry. We went to Adamana to see what was still there from the 20s when the park was opened, nothing except a propane storage facility. Although Jim thought that this looked like an Alien holding facility with all sorts of odd sensors, electric fences, and big nasty signs around. We took a photo of the Alien holding center for further research.
Returning to Holbrook we picked up our laundry and checked into the Wigwam hotel. There were about 15 Wigwams with cars from the 40s, 50s, and 60s parked in front of each one. Jim and Cris could not tell the models but we took some photos so Ken could identify them for us. The Wigwams were about 25 feet high on the outside made of stucco and on the inside had standard 8ft ceilings. A large bed, heater, air conditioner and bathroom were all inside each of the Wigwams. Much of the town had lost power so we stopped to buy flashlights and candles for the Wigwams.
Off with the laptop to have Mexican cuisine at a place with Wi-Fi. Returning from dinner we could see that the Wigwams had power, but entering ours we found no power was available. A handy man replaced and blew two fuses before declaring there was a short somewhere. We spoke to the owner who provided a key to the next Wigwam down. (We noticed that these were no-smoking Wigwams and we found this ironic).
In for the night for a very early start the next day, off to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival
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