Painted Desert Inn

Painted Desert Inn

Window in Adobe © 2013 Bo Mackison

The Painted Desert Inn is within the boundaries of the Petrified Forest National Park and on the original Route 66. It is situated high on a mesa overlooking the Painted Desert.

Painted Desert Inn

Painted Desert Inn © 2013 Bo Mackison

Built in the early 1920s by Herbert D. Lore, it offered lodging and dining in a remote setting on the Colorado Plateau. Purchased by the National Park Service in 1935, it underwent extensive remodeling under the supervision of architect Lyle Bennett. Men in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did much of the labor.

Painted Desert Inn

Painted Desert Inn © 2013 Bo Mackison

The building’s red-stucco, stone walls are more than two feet thick. Multiple layers, flat roofs with Ponderosa Pine beams, and flagstone courtyards add great character and the high desert sunlight offers contrast between light and shadow.

Outlook Path at Painted Desert Inn

Outlook Path at Painted Desert Inn © 2013 Bo Mackison

Imagine being a visitor to the lodge in the early 1940s. A traveler could get lodging, meals, souvenirs…and an unforgettable view of the setting sun from this overlook point at the rear of the building.

(The inn was restored in 2006 to look as it did in 1946. It is now a museum and a National Historic Landmark.)

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.    As she travels cross-country, she is visiting National Parks and Monuments on her route.

 

 

 

Last Stop in Arizona – Petrified Forest

Petrified Wood

Petrified Wood ©2013 Bo Mackison

On my second day of travel, I headed north and east so I could visit one of my favorite destinations – Petrified Forest National Park. Not only am I fascinated by the petrified wood – from tree chunks to tiny pebbles – dotting the barren landscape, I also love to wander throughout the rooms of the Painted Desert Inn, a National Historic Landmark, dating from the 1920s. (To be featured in the next post!)

Chucks of Petrified Wood

Chunks of Petrified Wood ©2013 Bo Mackison

Petrified wood is deep with color, patterns, even textures. No longer wood, these relics are fossils, once ancient wood turned into rock crystals.

The petrified fossils are scattered about the park, but they are protected by federal laws. There are reminders throughout the park, reminding visitors to look, not touch.

Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park ©2013 Bo Mackison

Petrified rocks are available for sale in nearby towns, specimens mined from privately owned land. Of course, I had to stop at my favorite petrified rock shop, Jim Gray’s in Holbrook, Arizona.  There is something ancient and sacred about a carrying a small piece of rock in my pocket that is a 100 million years old.

So I added a few last-chance talismans to this year’s Arizona collection of trinkets.

Painted Desert

Painted Desert ©2013 Bo Mackison

The Petrified Forest is only a small part of the Painted Desert, an irregularly formed crescent that stretches from western Arizona to central New Mexico.

Pale purple, gray blue and off white striations in the rock at the Petrified Forest add interest to the badlands scenery. These colors came from iron deposits in places with no oxygen, typically submerged in stagnant water in prehistoric marshes. The deep red layers indicate a dry and hot climate in the presence of oxygen. The various layers date from 50 to 200 million years ago, time enough for oceans and swamps to turn to desert a few times over.

Painted Teepees

Painted Teepees ©2013 Bo Mackison

I drove through the park, and stopped at every pull-off and a few extra middle-of-the-road photographs. Happily, the park had few visitors on an early morning in late April, and so there were few cars to worry about. And then I drove on the entrance ramp that leads directly from the Visitor Center to I-40 and headed towards New Mexico!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.    She is traveling cross-country and blogging about her travels — whenever she is in a motel with internet and awake, concurrently.

Hubbell Trading Post

Wagon Wheel

Wagon Wheel © 2010 Bo Mackison

One of the last sites we visited in Arizona before reaching the Four Corners area was the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site located in Navajo Nation in northern Arizona.

John Hubbell purchased the trading post in 1878, ten years after Navajos were given permission to return to their homes from their enforced exile at Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. The Navajos were introduced to many, different material goods during the four years they were in New Mexico and Hubbell and his family traded with the Navajo once they returned home.

Hubbell Trading Post

Hubbell Trading Post © 2010 Bo Mackison

He built a trading empire that included stage and freight lines as well as several trading posts.

Historic Hubbell Trading Post

Historic Hubbell Trading Post © 2010 Bo Mackison

This historic site is surrounded by the Navajo Nation.  The 160 acres are on the Colorado Plateau in the high desert, approximately 6300 feet in elevation. The environment is comprised mostly of shrub land and Pinon and Juniper vegetation.

Hubbell Trading Post, Interior

Hubbell Trading Post, Interior © 2010 Bo Mackison

Various members of the Hubbell family operated the trading post continuously until the site was sold to the National Park Service in 1967. The trading post remains active, continuing the trading traditions the Hubbell family began in the 1870s.