Painted Desert

It had started snowing as we pulled into the campground in Grants, so on Wednesday morning we waited a few hours to let the snow melt before heading out on I40 over the continental divide. As they had in Oklahoma, many little stores along this stretch of the interstate had signs advertising that they had once been on Route 66. I found it funny that they put such emphasis on being on a road that people used primarily just to get through this area, rather than the fact that they were now just off a road that people now use just to get through the area. Originally, we had planned to stop at El Morro NM, and some of the NP sites around the Flagstaff, Arizona area. However, with forecasts of snow and below freezing temperatures in the Flagstaff area, we thought it best to forgo those and try to get down to lower ground south of Flagstaff for the night.

We did stop at the northern visitor center for the Petrified Forest National Park, where we watched a movie about the park and the kids earned Junior Ranger badges. The southern part of the park is where the petrified forests are located, while the northern section is noted for its views of the painted desert to the north.

We would have loved to travel the length of the park, but decided we needed to push on through Flagstaff, so we just drove out a few miles to the painted desert overlook. It was a good thing we didn't take the extra time, because as we approached Flagstaff around dinner time, snow began falling. We crawled along for almost an hour through a minor blizzard before we got down low enough and far enough south that the snow turned to rain. We stopped in Camp Verde for the night.