Saturday, March 10, 2018
Saturday morning we returned to the park and, after watching the video, took a longer walk in the Rainbow Forest. We drove north to the Crystal Forest for the the short loop walk before returning to the museum to the trail head for the 2.6 mile hike to the Agate House and Giant Logs Trail. While there are trails into the badlands, those on the park map are paved to make them user friendly, and some are wheel chair accessible. With limited time, we opted not to venture into the badlands.
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| A scattering of petrified wood deposited in a creek bed |
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| Some information about how wood becomes petrified |
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| Some of colors in a petrified log |
The Agate House, originally built of agatized wood blocks and mud mortar, was occupied sometime between 1050 and 1300, Late Pueblo II and III, but with few artifacts found nearby, it may have been a central gathering place rather than home. The house was reconstructed by the CCC corp in the 1930's. The Agate House Trail connected with the Long Logs Trail, a site of a Triassic log jam, that has a tangle of huge logs, some over 180' long. Impressive!
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| Agate House |
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| Detail of Agate House 'wood' |
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| A few of the 'long logs' |
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| Long logs and badlands |
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| Distinct layered stripes in the badlands |
As we hiked, we could see rain falling from the clouds, but not reaching the ground. The forecast included showers with steadier rain overnight - we're beginning to wonder if all the cold weather and rain has something to do with us! We planned to stop at the Meteor Crater and hoped the showers would hold off until we had a chance to check it out. We ran into a few showers as we headed west, but luckily they stopped when we arrived.
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Meteor Crater - to give an idea of size, those tiny little black spots are people at a look out half way down the R side of the photo
(High Resolution Photo) |
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| Some information about the crater - a series of cores were made in an attempt to find the meteor |
While video at the crater was interesting, we missed a docent led rim tour which would have made the stop more interesting. We toured the museum and checked out the multiple lookouts. Access to the rim was restricted to those on the docent tours.
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| The slant of the rock layers caused by the meteor strike |
The site was impressive - a bowl, some 700' deep and 4000' across, carved out 50,000 years ago by a meteor estimated to have been 150' across, weighing several hundred thousand tons, and traveling about 26,000 MPH (but it looks like a hole in the ground). The crater was used to train astronauts for the lunar landing.
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| A pair of ravens |
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Warning sign on the road to the Meteor Crater -
we've seen similar warnings, but I never had the camera ready |
We spent the night in Flagstaff after having been sent on a goose chase thanks to the lady giving directions on the cell phone GPS. Somehow she thought we were headed to a Travelodge in Tulsa , OK, not Flagstaff, AZ. Her directions were still wrong after we got the city, and by then it was raining (there are 4 Travel Lodges in Flagstaff). Needless to say, our accommodations for the night were, by far, the least desirable of the trip, and one of the more expensive. Thankfully it was only for one night.
We drove into town for dinner and spent some time searching for a parking space. Being a Saturday night, and a college town, the town was hopping, not unlike Burlington. We would have spent more time poking around, but it was still drizzling when we finished dinner, and it had been a long day! With the train tracks running next to Route 66, no matter which motel we'd picked, we'd have been subject to the noise of multiple trains passing throughout the night.
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Sunday morning, with time to spend before we could check in at our next Airbnb in Prescott, we drove up to Buffalo Park above Flagstaff for a walk. With the drizzle, we thought we'd have the place to ourselves only to find a number people already getting some exercise. The parking lot was filling up by the time we'd finished the 2 mile exercise loop. Thankfully it only drizzled and the sky had a few small patches of blue giving promise of clearing later in the day.
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| The buffalo at the park entrance |
We took the longer, scenic route to Sedona - it was beautiful, with the mountains disappearing and reappearing in the clouds as we drove the twisty road down the canyon. Traffic was fairly light until we approached Sedona which was packed with traffic and tourists giving us little enticement to stop and explore.
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The buck at Kachina Village - made from car bumpers
when the button was pushed, he suggested our 'bucks' would be well spent inside - it had lots of nice, expensive things to purchase -
I liked one 'old' early 20th C native basket with a price tag of $1300 |
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| Kachina outside the store |
As we approached Cottonwood and added a stop at Trader Joe's in Prescott to our route, I had an issue with the lady on the cell phone. I'd planned to stay on the back roads to Prescott, but she insisted we take the longer 2 legs of the triangle including going back to I17. Apparently she doesn't do scenic or switch backs, preferring the fastest route. Sometimes she's not to be trusted - we've had occasions where her directions are wrong. In this case, both TJ's and Costco were close to town. I should have stuck to my guns. After a quick stop at TJ's, the GPS lady directed us to our Prescott AirBnB with no more problems.
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