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.

Overhanging a Winter Path

Overhanging a Winter Path

Overhanging a Winter Path © 2011 Bo Mackison

Your life lies before you like a path of driven snow,
be careful how you tread it ’cause every step will show.
~ Lowri Williams

Double Vision

Double Vision

Double Vision © 2011 Bo Mackison

I’m moving at a slower speed today, but I am taking in a good many things.
Seeing things not only once, seeing them over and over.
And concentrating on what I am seeing, feeling, doing.
Moving through the day mindfully, slowly.

Moving through the day in winter mode. All bundled up, and heading out into the storm.

One step at a time.

A Touch of Snow

Leaf Bouquet

A Touch of Snow © 2011 Bo Mackison

On a trail near Horse Tail Lake in a Cook County Forest Preserve, near Palos Park, Illinois.

Petrified Wood in the Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Wood III
Multi-colored Petrified Wood

“An enchanted spot…to stand on the glass of a gigantic kaleidoscope, over whose sparkling surface the sun breaks in infinite rainbows.” ~~Charles F. Lummis, Some Strange Corners of Our Country – A Forest of Agate, 1891.

Petrified Forest National Park
Petrified Forest National Park

The Petrified Forest National Park is home to a large region of the Colorado Plateau filled with shards and fallen logs of petrified wood. The fossils have been dated to the Late Triassic period, approximately 225 million years ago.

Petrified Wood VI
Annular Petrified Wood

In the National Park, most of the logs in the park have retained their original form as they petrified, but internal structure was worn away by the elements. A few of the logs and some of the collection of petrified animal bones have cells that retained their original organic structure even though the structures were mineralized.

Petrified Wood
Red Petrified Wood

Much of the park’s petrified wood is from Araucarioxylon arizonicum trees, though at least nine species of fossilized trees have been identified in this petrified forest. All of these species are now extinct.

The International School of Gemology presents an informative and in depth explanation of how wood becomes petrified.