Petrified Forest National Park

We learned something this trip: Not all National Parks are created equal!! In fact, some National Parks are better than others! Some National Parks you can't wait to go back and visit and could possibly visit every year....while others once is quite enough!!

The Petrified Forest National Park is definitely a National Park I was glad I saw and visited but I'm pretty sure it is a once in my lifetime event! I am in no hurry to go visit again!! It was pretty cool to see so much petrified wood though!

This is at Painted Desert which is within the National Park.

It doesn't quite look like a painted desert in this picture, but as we drove around it did have a lot of colors.

Throughout the National Park there are pullout spots and hikes. This hike we went on was to view an old Indian ruin and these petroglyphs.

The famous Route 66 highway memorial!

The only desert bloom we saw in the forest.

I can't even describe the wind that day!! We thought we were going to get blown away! I had to hold on tight to Mara and Caleb or they probably would have blown right off the trail!

Here is a big chunk of petrified wood. It's pretty amazing to think how old it is!

It was a fun new adventure for our family! One we will not forget and have fond memories of!

I had no idea petrified wood was so colorful! We must have seen nearly every color possible!

Ty and Mara were so proud and excited to finish their Jr. Ranger books and get badges!

We were all glad to get out of the wind for a little while as we walked through the visitor center!

Believe it or not we still hadn't made it to Phoenix yet! We stayed the night in Payson Arizona which wasn't too far away from Phoenix. We debated whether or not to keep driving and try to beat the winter storm that was on it's way or keep our reservation. We decided to take it easy and go swimming in the pool instead of driving more that night!

The kids loved swimming...I would have enjoyed it more had it been a little warmer! Brrrr! It was too cold for me but I did get in for a little while!
When we woke up in the morning there was a complete blizzard and the roads were completely snow covered!! We talked to someone from Arizona and he said it was horrible driving and we would never make it to Phoenix under such conditions! Obviously he hasn't had much experience with snow because it wasn't really that bad!