After a bit of work in the morning, we headed straight into Petrified Forest National Park. The ranger who checked my pass was kind enough to inform me of two places that were too small for my van and trailer to fit, which I appreciated. Our first stop was the visitor’s center, which I’d never stopped at before. All kinds of cool fossils and petrified wood were on display.
We took a quick walk on some trails behind the visitor’s center and saw some enormous petrified logs. Check out this one with me for scale. At its base, it’s thicker than I am tall! I’ll never get over how much it looks like wood, but when you touch it, you can feel that it’s cold like a rock because it is a rock now. No words can convey this feeling, so you’ll just have to go touch some petrified wood yourself some time.
The next stop was the Agate Bridge, a natural bridge made out of a petrified log across what used to be a stream. Unfortunately, this was one of the two stops the ranger said my van wouldn’t fit into. I highly recommended that Melissa check it out on her own, though, since it’s a really cool stop. This picture is from my previous visit in October 2021. I imagine it hasn’t changed much.
While Melissa took her detour, I pressed on to Newspaper Rock, where I had plenty of room to park. Over 650 ancient petroglyphs cover this rock, making it look like an ancient newspaper, giving it its name. Several generations of people came back here to inscribe their stories on this rock over the years. It’s basically ancient Twitter, or X or whatever they’re calling it these days. Melissa caught up to me here, checked out the rock, and we continued on.
We stopped at an overlook for lunch, which offered an amazing view of the Painted Desert. We then took Lister for a short walk on the leash, as he’d been cooped up inside the van since we left Lake Mead. He didn’t want to go back inside, so I had to pick him up and carry him. Melissa snapped this quick shot when I did that.
From there, the drive was a serious grind. We knew it would be long, but I don’t understand how what Google Maps says should take six hours turned into nine. We did lose an hour when we crossed into New Mexico, and driving 65 mph instead of the 75 mph limit will push back the time a bit, but not an extra two hours. I wish I’d taken Melissa’s suggestion to stop at Red Rock Park for a night as we passed through Gallup, New Mexico. We’d already passed the exit around 3:00 pm, my brain wasn’t ready to process such a deviation from our flight plan, and I was having a lot of trouble hearing her on the radio because of other people on the same channel so communication was tough. (I just ordered her the Technician ham radio license manual so she can get her license, and we can get on a nice quiet two-meter simplex frequency!)
The traffic wasn’t even too bad. It got thick through Albuquerque but never slowed down. It did stop moving in a construction zone a few miles east of the city, but that only slowed us down by about ten minutes. The final hour of the drive was quite difficult for both of us. It was dark, and we were both tired and frustrated at the situation (fortunately, not with each other). Finally, we rolled into our overnight stop just before 9:00 pm. The only reason we didn’t bail into a truck stop sooner, where we’d get a terrible night’s sleep, is that I knew this was a safe landing zone since I stayed here during my Route 66 trip. It’s a small town park that offers free overnight camping, and we had a much-needed good night’s sleep.
We liked it so much in 2021 that we took a day off the road and spent two nights here. We’re so worn out from our six-hour drive that turned into nine that we’re going to do the same thing now. All three of us, including Lister, need a break from the road. I guess I’ve found my limit as far as how far I can travel in a day. Maybe I also need to start adding 50% to Google’s travel time estimates. The good news is that we’re a stone’s throw from the Texas border, halfway to Melissa’s place, and should now get there Saturday after taking today off the road.
Smokey Da Van 