Day 45 - Chips All Round
Trip Start
May 19, 2008
1
47
161
Trip End
Nov 08, 2008
Chinle,
Arizona,
United States
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Eager to get into the park before the hoards started arriving, we were up and out by about 8am. The entrance fee for this park is only $10 so we're now $75 dollars into the $80 that we paid.
The Petrified Forest National Park is part of an area that, 225 million years ago, was a vast flood plain. Thousands of trees were washed into the area, covered with silt and due to the lack of oxygen, underwent the process of petrification, whereby the wood tissues were replaced with silica deposits. Our first stop was The Rainbow Forest Museum. It's called this because of the incredible variation of colours present in the minerals of the petrified logs. Sadly, out of the four groups of people that were there between 8am and 9am, we were the only ones that followed the park rules and stayed on the paths and off the petrified trees
Petrified Logs 1 © MFox 2008
. It seems to us that out of the hundreds of thousands of visitors to these natural wonders, the people that truly care about their preservation for future generations are in the minority. We've noticed this at the other parks we've visited too. The booklet that you are given when entering Yosemite states that the National Parks were created in order that places of natural beauty could be saved for the American people. We reckon it should be changed to "saved FROM the American people". Most of them (not all, but most) are like kids in a sweet shop or adventure playground. They just have to touch and climb over everything. Mel even pointed out to a ranger one group that were clambering all over "Old Faithful", the largest tree in the park. In fact he could clearly see them through the window, but his reply was "I can't leave the desk"! Even when they went back into the visitor centre, he said nothing to them.
We're both very disillusioned by the fact that these parks are pulling in thousands of dollars on a daily basis and all the rangers seem to do is drive around in gas-guzzling pick-ups or sit in air-conditioned buildings rather than be out on foot patrolling and protecting the places that they are working in. When you do see them outdoors on foot, they tend to be directing traffic rather than being at the major points of interest stopping the public from doing what they shouldn't
Petrified Wood
. Anyway, we digress. As we are both reasonably intelligent human beings with more than half a brain between us, we (unlike most of the plebs in the park today) were able to visit a part of the park that most people don't seem to be able to locate (thankfully)! It was our best part of the day, as the examples of the petrified logs are better than at The Rainbow Forest and in much higher volumes. It was also nice to take it all in without having the peace disturbed by loud-mouthed people and without witnessing any destruction. This area is on the map and listed in the information and there are proper trails through it so we weren't wandering into a restricted area or anything, but we both got the impression that maybe the signs were a little less conspicuous than they could be. And quite rightly so. Despite written and verbal warnings and the threat of fines, over a ton of petrified wood is taken from the park illegally every month! How long before it's all gone?
We stopped off at various other points throughout the park, one of the best being Blue Mesa, where you really do see a "painted desert". The different colours and layering of the sediments in the rocks is quite spectacular.
As we approached the park exit there were signs which stated that vehicles would be searched as you left the park
Collared Lizard 1 © MFox 2008
. However, it was all the ranger in the booth could do to open her window and wave us through, let alone get out and have a look for petrified wood. In our one van alone, we could have had several kilos stashed. This was the final straw for Mel. Having been given a slip at the entrance on which to report any sightings of wood being taken, or other acts of destruction (first time in any of the parks), she flipped and went for it both barrels, listing all of the things above plus a bit more! She stormed into the visitor centre and handed it over to one of the four "rangers" that were enjoying the air-conditioning behind the gift shop counter! After a short hop east on the I-40 we headed north on Highway 191 towards Chinle. After spending an incredibly boring hour and a half on what should have been a "scenic road" according to our map and Chip sustaining a huge chip in his windscreen thanks to an oversize vehicle travelling far too fast in the opposite direction to us, we stopped off in Ganado for a late lunch at Burger King. As we left the National Park we had entered Navajo Nation, proper Indian country, and therefore all of the people working in BK were native American Indians. Now we had always empathised with the plight of these poor people and the injustices dealt out to them in the past, but boy have they got chips on their shoulders?! They were doing a very good job in this particular establishment in treating the white man (and woman) with the contempt that they had obviously had to suffer in the past
Collared Lizard 2 © MFox 2008
. Eager to move on (as we were the only white people we had seen all afternoon we realised), we carried on north towards Chinle. Finding ourselves on yet another long, straight, mind-numbingly boring road, which we worked out we would be on for an hour, we decided to pass the time by naming all of the American States without the use of a map. As that didn't take us very long (we got 41), we moved on to English Counties.
We arrived in Chinle late afternoon to find that we were the only white people in the fuel station and the supermarket. We found our campsite at Canyon de Chelly National Monument on the outskirts of Chinle which was very clean, well laid out and free! The Navajos could teach the white Americans a thing or two!
While Mel prepared dinner, Neil attempted a windscreen repair with a kit that he had bought in the supermarket. It's by no means a perfect job, bus as we are miles away from any big towns, it will at least stop the crack from spreading.
Distance travelled: 139 miles
Total distance travelled: 2395 miles
Days on road: 25
States visited: 3
National Parks visited: 4
