We spent a large part of our day on the road as we trekked through southern Utah to check out the petrified wood at the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. Henry performed fairly well, only requiring two stops to be let out of his car seat for a chance to stretch his little legs. We were a bit flabbergasted when we arrived and found this:
Um, that's it? I hadn't seen quotes around the word forest. There was one easily accessible path that took less than a minute to walk through. We had driven nearly two hours for that? Luckily, Ann saw the trailhead for a strenuous one mile hike that led to the top of a mesa so we headed up. There were a bunch of highlighted items on the pamphlet the Forest Service had prepared so you knew what you were viewing along the way - black boulder, balancing rock, pygmy trees, and scattered throughout lots of petrified wood. Petrified wood is a type of fossil, it's wood that has had all of its organic materials replaced by minerals. Different minerals give the petrified wood its wide range of colors.
Henry liked it but I didn't have him stand in one place too long for there were red fire ants afoot. I didn't think he'd take too kindly to an obscenely long car ride
and getting bitten by fire ants. Here's what the stuff looks like close up:
Looks like wood, tastes like chicken. On our way back to the hotel we got held up by lambs and ewes crossing the street. I don't think that has ever happened to me before. I did spot a cow in the road once but it wasn't in the middle of the road and it hadn't prevented me from continuing on my way. (I did stop at the house I believed it was from to let them know, hey, escaped cow.) For tomorrow we've decided to stay close to our home base to give Henry a bit of a break from all of the driving. And now, I shall try to get some sleep. This persistent cough is keeping me awake at night.
Um, that's it? I hadn't seen quotes around the word forest. There was one easily accessible path that took less than a minute to walk through. We had driven nearly two hours for that? Luckily, Ann saw the trailhead for a strenuous one mile hike that led to the top of a mesa so we headed up. There were a bunch of highlighted items on the pamphlet the Forest Service had prepared so you knew what you were viewing along the way - black boulder, balancing rock, pygmy trees, and scattered throughout lots of petrified wood. Petrified wood is a type of fossil, it's wood that has had all of its organic materials replaced by minerals. Different minerals give the petrified wood its wide range of colors.
Henry liked it but I didn't have him stand in one place too long for there were red fire ants afoot. I didn't think he'd take too kindly to an obscenely long car ride and getting bitten by fire ants. Here's what the stuff looks like close up:
Looks like wood, tastes like chicken. On our way back to the hotel we got held up by lambs and ewes crossing the street. I don't think that has ever happened to me before. I did spot a cow in the road once but it wasn't in the middle of the road and it hadn't prevented me from continuing on my way. (I did stop at the house I believed it was from to let them know, hey, escaped cow.) For tomorrow we've decided to stay close to our home base to give Henry a bit of a break from all of the driving. And now, I shall try to get some sleep. This persistent cough is keeping me awake at night.
2 comments:
Well, it is pretty - and that's a cool picture of Henry!
Henry's becoming quite the outdoorsman. I love the wildlife reporting too. Fire ants, sheep, cows, oh my!
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