Towards THE Canyon



Towards the canyon. From Tucson to Bryce Arboretum and then route 60 via the Salt River Canyon and then to the Petrified Forest National Park.



Another view of Salt River Canyon

Children admiring the deathly deep chasm of the Salt River

Salt river in the valley below

More responsible parenting

Within the Petrified forest a lifer - Sage Thrasher

And now a game - spot the Sage Thrasher....

From Wikipedia;
Petrified Forest National Park is a United States national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. The park's headquarters is about 26 miles (42 km) east of Holbrook along Interstate 40 (I-40), which parallels the BNSF Railway's Southern Transcon, the Puerco River, and historic U.S. Route 66, all crossing the park roughly east–west. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the park covers about 146 square miles (380 km²), encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962. About 600,000 people visit the park each year and take part in activities including sightseeing, photography, hiking, and backpacking.

Averaging about 5,400 feet (1,600 m) in elevation, the park has a dry windy climate with temperatures that vary from summer highs of about 100 °F (38 °C) to winter lows well below freezing. More than 400 species of plants, dominated by grasses such as bunchgrass, blue grama, and sacaton, are found in the park. Fauna include larger animals such as pronghorns, coyotes, and bobcats; many smaller animals, such as deer mice; snakes; lizards; seven kinds of amphibians, and more than 200 species of birds, some of which are permanent residents and many of which are migratory. About half of the park is designated wilderness.

The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic, about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All of the park's rock layers above the Chinle, except geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by wind and water. In addition to petrified logs, fossils found in the park have included Late Triassic ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and many other plants as well as fauna including giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large amphibians, and early dinosaurs. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the park's fossils since the early 20th century.

The park's earliest human inhabitants arrived at least 8,000 years ago. By about 2,000 years ago, they were growing corn in the area and shortly thereafter building pit houses in what would become the park. Later inhabitants built above-ground dwellings called pueblos. Although a changing climate caused the last of the park's pueblos to be abandoned by about 1400 CE, more than 600 archeological sites, including petroglyphs, have been discovered in the park.

 In the 16th century, Spanish explorers visited the area, and by the mid-19th century a U.S. team had surveyed an east–west route through the area where the park is now located and noted the petrified wood. Later roads and a railway followed similar routes and gave rise to tourism and, before the park was protected, to large-scale removal of fossils. Theft of petrified wood remains a problem in the 21st century.

Petrified Logs

Family in the Bad  Lands

Petrified Log detail

wind swept and interesting vistas..

Again more Arizonan variety of landscape

The snow in the desert emphasising ancient sediment layers was pretty impressive

More than 600 archeological sites have been found inside the boundaries of Petrified Forest National Park. Evidence suggests that the earliest inhabitants of the park arrived at least 8,000 years ago. Two Folsom-type spear points, the earliest artifacts of Paleo-Indians found in the park, are at least that old. Between 6000 BCE and 1 CE, the Archaic–Early Basketmaker Era, nomadic groups established seasonal camps in the Petrified Forest from which they hunted small game such as rabbits, pronghorn antelope, and deer and harvested seeds from Indian ricegrass and other wild plants. Around 150 BCE, they began to grow corn in the area. By 1 CE, as their farming techniques improved, some built houses in the Petrified Forest and began to stay there year-round.^[20]
The early farmers from the Early Basketmaker II Era, lived in the Petrified Forest from about 1 CE to about 800 CE. They occupied pit houses at fewer than 100 sites, at first on mesas or other vantage points and later at the base of bluffs and in lowlands, where the soil was better. As climatic conditions worsened for farming between 750 and 900 CE, the settlements changed with the Pueblo I Era. Rather than below-ground pits, the Pueblo Builders constructed above-ground houses and storerooms that may have been capable of storing food for more than one year. At the same time, climatic conditions changed again, this time for the better, between 900 and 1275 CE. More than 200 pueblo-builder sites have been identified in the park at a wide variety of locations—at the mouths of washes, near seeps, and on moisture-holding sand dunes.^[21]
During the Pueblo I Era, most sites were single-family homes, but as soils became exhausted many sites were abandoned by 1250 CE in favor of very large multi-room pueblos close to more dependable sources of water.^[22] The Pueblo Builders constructed two of these large pueblos, one called Stone Axe, about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) east of the park, and the other at Puerco Pueblo, which overlooks the Puerco River near the middle of the park.^[23] There they built about 100 one-story rooms around an open plaza.^[23] The rooms had no windows or doors but each could be entered by climbing a ladder and descending through a hole in the roof. At its peak, perhaps 200 people lived in this pueblo.^[23] Over time, however, a persistently dry climate led to out-migration, and the last residents abandoned Puerco Pueblo in about 1380 CE.^[24]
At Puerco Pueblo and many other sites within the park, petroglyphs—images, symbols, or designs—have been scratched, pecked, carved, or incised on rock surfaces, often on a patina known as desert varnish. Most of the petroglyphs in Petrified Forest National Park are thought to be between 650 and 2,000 years old.^[25]
From the 16th through the 18th centuries, explorers looking for routes between Spanish colonies along the Rio Grande to the southeast and other Spanish colonies on the Pacific coast to the west passed near or through the area, which they called El Desierto Pintado, the Painted Desert. However, the park's oldest Spanish inscriptions, left by descendants of the region's early Spanish colonists, date only to the late 19th century.^[26]

Rock art

Rock art depicting a giant white-faced Ibis eating a very small man

More rock art panels

The same patterned panel in context of the greater surroundings

Painted Desert

Painted Desert towards dusk wearing a winter coat

Walnut Canyon National Monument

From Wikipedia;
Walnut Canyon National Monument is a United States National Monument located about 10 mi (16 km) southeast of downtown Flagstaff, Arizona, near Interstate 40. The canyon rim elevation is 6,690 ft (2,040 m); the canyon's floor is 350 ft lower. A 0.9 mi (1.4 km) long loop trail descends 185 ft (56 m) into the canyon passing 25 cliff dwelling rooms constructed by the Sinagua, a pre-Columbian cultural group that lived in Walnut Canyon from about 1100 to 1250 CE. Other contemporary habitations of the Sinagua people are preserved in the nearby Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle national monuments.

Walnut Canyon lies on the Colorado Plateau and cuts through the Permian Kaibab Limestone, which exposes the Toroweap Formation and Coconino Sandstone.^[7] The Kaibab formation also forms the rim of the Grand Canyon. Crossbedding is present in the Coconino Sandstone.
The Walnut Canyon site contains Walnut Creek, which carved a 600 foot deep canyon that flows east. The creek joins into the Little Colorado River en route to the Grand Canyon. The creek has also created a varied and abundant array of vegetation. The shaded, north- facing walls are covered in fir and ponderosa pine trees. The sunny, south facing slopes have agaves and several species of cactus including opuntia, echnocereus and cholla. The floor of the canyon is home to several species of walnut trees, for which the canyon is named.
The rocks in the canyon walls are formed of three distinct layers - the upper third of Walnut Canyon's walls contain Kaibab limestone that varies in layers and hardness, where the cliff dwellings are found, which overlies steep, scrub covered slopes of the Toroweap Formation, while the lowest third is the sheer-walled, cross-bedded Coconino Sandstone. Many layers of the limestone eroded, creating alcoves that the Sinagua Indians used as cave-dwellings.

Sinagua is Spanish for "without water", an acknowledgement that the Sinagua people were able to live in a such a dry region. By living in such a region the Sinagua became experts at conserving water and dealing with droughts. The Sinagua were also believed to have been active traders that stretched to the Gulf of Mexico and even as far as Central America. The Sinagua, who inhabited the dwellings in Walnut Canyon, left mysteriously around 1250 AD. It is thought that the Sinagua left because of fear of neighboring tribes or droughts, but it is not certain. The Sinagua left over 80 cliff dwellings behind. The Sinagua built their homes under limestone ledges, deep within the canyon, some time between 1125 and 1250 AD - taking advantage of the natural recesses in the limestone cliff walls which were eroded over millions of years by flowing water.^[4] The dwellings themselves were small, but large enough for the inhabitants to cook and sleep. Most of the cliff dwelling rooms are situated near the loop trail, typically slightly above the trail and immediately outside the loop itself. A typical room might have been the dwelling of a single family, and might measure approximately two meters high by six meters long by three meters deep. Because of the area's dry climate, the water present in the canyon was essential for its inhabitants over 700 years ago as it is for animal and plant life today. The plant life is very diverse in Walnut Canyon, with more than 387 different plant species, including the Prickly Pear cactus and the Arizona black walnut. The biodiversity of the area includes high concentrations of sensitive plant species that probably contributed to the decision made by prehistoric people to settle in the area.^[5]
There are other ruins in the 20-by-10-mile (32 by 16 km) area, but none are publicly accessible. Many more dwellings to be seen up close in the canyon just east of the Monument, although it is illegal to enter the canyon.

Walnut Canyon was proclaimed a national monument on November 30, 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson to preserve the ancient cliff dwellings.