Three weeks in the West,parts 11 and 12

So where was I?

On June 4, we arrived in Arizona. I hadn't been in the particular area to which we were headed -- the White Mountains -- since I'd gone to the Rainbow Family National in 1998.

An old friend of my Lady Friend's was spending the summer in Pinetop, AZ. This is a resort town a couple of hours east of Phoenix (or north of Tucson). I mention that because many of the people we met were Tucson residents who'd come up to enjoy cooler temperatures.

As it had been when we arrived in Colorado, there were storm clouds looming to the west. No rain fell, but we welcomed our host's invitation to stay at her place. On the 5th, we drove about an hour north to Petrified Forest National Park, which I kept referring to as the Painted Desert. The two blend together, geographically and geologically (or I suppose I could say "geomorphologically").

It was claimed that the park is the only location on Earth that has petrifed wood fused with quartz. I wondered about sites on the nearby reservations and elsewhere in the state, though. I recall picking up all sorts of petrified wood in Sedona when I lived there. Additionally, I noticed a Native craftsman who sold sculptures made from the same wood on the way to the Grand Canyon.

In the latter case, it was very clearly indicated that he had not obtained the wood in the national park, which is illegal. According to park info, a ton of petrified wood is taken away by visitors... each year, was it? My Lady Friend watched the video presentation while I walked across the visitor center, so I'm getting that tidbit from her.

Anyhow: We followed the circuit road that connects many of the viewpoints and trails, then we took a short hike down into the multicolored hills. I didn't read about how the different types of sediment in the area were formed, so I can't tell you how the Painted Desert became painted.

I hadn't slept very long the night before, so I was quite drained by the time we returned to the car. My Lady Friend drove us back to Pinetop. We ate, we slept, and then the next day, we departed for Sedona. Along the way, we saw the charred remains of the previous year's wildfires -- and caught faraway glimpses of a fire that was burning near Heber, AZ.

After a couple of hours on the backroads, we arrived at the Village of the Oak Creek. This is a small satellite town of Sedona, "the New Age capital of the Universe" as described by a friend as I prepared to move there 10 years ago.

It had been nearly eight years since my last visit to Sedona. This was the part of our trip that I'd looked forward to the most, going back to that winter night in Korea when we first discussed driving through the Southwest. I was honestly and obviously excited about what was ahead, which was a surprise for my Lady Friend (who often asks if I'm excited about something, only to get the reply, "I wouldn't say 'excited.'")

I'll share more about why -- and what we did Sedona -- in the next couple of posts.


















This is Agave parryi, otherwise known as century plant. Apparently, the common belief was that this type of agave only produced flowers after 100 years. It will actually bloom, and then die, after about 20 years.

I'd seen the tall, dry stalks of dead agaves around Bell Rock many times in the past, so it was a surprise to see so many of the plants in full bloom.


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Photos from days nine and ten are here.

Here is the post for day 13.