We did a side excursion on our journey to Flagstaff to visit the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks. I really like visiting our National Parks. I always walk away with a sense of the immensity, power and beauty of nature. There was a lot of rehabilitation of park buildings going on which was good.
In this desolate place nature has painted the landscape with vibrant color that covers thousands of acres. In the area used to be an ancient forest with very large trees. When the land dried up the trees filled with minerals and were "preserved" at least in shape and appearance.