Show Low Arizona- April 25

We are staying in an Arizona State Forest- beside a lake and 100 foot tall evergreens. Very nice. We will meet Norm's son soon for a visit.

Our state Forest Campground

Small Watercolor this morning.

Met Norm's son Darrin who rode 4 hours up from Tucson to show us around.

Great BBQ here for lunch

Darrin and his friend John led us to Porter Mountain

Norm, John, Darrin, Angus and Bonnie at top of mountain

Very green- almost looks like NH

Darrin will have a steak with us at our campground later today.

Petrified Forest -Part Two- April 24

The drive around is 28 miles and you stop a lot to look over at amazing sights in the area. We saw a lot of petrified trees- logs really, that had fallen down the cliffs of the mesa and onto the valley floor below. It was pretty cold today and very windy. So we looked, took photos, and hopped back in the truck.

Wildflowers- white, yellow, and purple seen

The minerals over the years left colors on the mesas

This is called the "Three Tepees"

See the Petrified wood falling down the Mesa. The land is so odd. Looks like another planet.

Called the Blue Mesa. Colors were darker because the weather was cloudy, windy and cold.

See how big the logs were!

This is called the Forest. tons of petrified logs on floor of valley.

Amazing colors left from various minerals

On our way south to meet Norm's son. staying in Show Low, Arizona tonight.

Petrified Forest-April 24

                 We went to see the the ruins of an old Pueblo and saw the mesa and valleys below.

We saw Petroglyphs on a lot of rocks. The Hopi think this is a stork carrying away a bad child. Others now think it is an Ibis carrying a frog. See the water droplets below.

We were right on the edge of a very high drop-off. Spectacular views.

Our first glimpse of Petrified Wood- at the visitors center

Lots of wildflowers.These are bigger than it appears.

Kiva  ruin.

Remains of a Pueblo. People lived here for 13,000 years.

Hard to see here- but the dark area has lots of Petroglyphs 

More Petroglyphs.

Monument Valley - April 22

Red Dirt everywhere. We'll really have to wash Bonnie. She's no longer a buff color. And Norm's white hat isn't white anymore!
We took an open jeep/truck tour all around Monument Valley so we could both see well and learn about it. The Navaho guide took us to his grandmother's Hogan, where we saw her spin sheep's wool and grind corn. He was good at telling us all about the Navaho Reservation and it's activities.
Then we bumped all through the valley on red dirt roads- into Arizona too. It was very windy and dusty.  We loved it though. I took more photos but this gives you a good idea. Along the way we saw Navahos  living in small houses or hogans.

                                                Our campground is in Utah- what a view.

Navaho guide's grandmother cards and pulls Sheep's wool into yarn. One sheep gives them 15 balls of rug yarn

Lucy grinds corn

This was beside the Hogan Lucy uses.

Now we're in Arizona

Navaho's sold jewelry at this stop. The man in the middle was the one on horseback. The girl is his daughter. About 15 families live in Monument Valley. Brothers cousins, etc.

All of the Buttes have names- such as"Elephant", "The Three Sisters", "Camel" etc.

This IS what it looks like. Amazing!! Left one is "Left Mitten". Center one is "Right Mitten" . Right on is "Merrick's Bute". Merrick was a soldier with Kid Carson who was killed by the Indians for stealing silver.

We passed this friendly Navaho and his son.

A Navaho girl getting her High School Graduation Photo taken

Tonight we watched a 1938  John Wayne movie, "Stagecoach" at the little movie theatre here. This is the American West!