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This morning we left Holbrook, AZ after an all you can eat pancake breakfast at the PF KOA and drove to the South Entrance of Petrified Forest National Park.
According to scientists a flood long ago brought the wood there and over the years it Petrified...Quartz, Jasper and other stones can be found inside the trunk of what were large trees. I think they got one thing right, it was most likely the flood that caused it - they were just way off in the year calculation. We read reviews that there was nothing at this park, but then another blogger nicely recorded you really have to get off your car and hike the paths to see what the park has to offer. I have to admit we did not do it full justice either. It was so hot, that after exploring one of the trails we called it quits, slowly drove the rest of the park and out of the North entrance. I really want to go back in milder weather and check out the rest of the trails - I really enjoyed checking out the colors in the wood.
We headed east on 40 and then got off the Interstate and headed south on what I later realized was old Route 66. At this point in our travel we had no reservations or solid plans, just a list of possible places to visit in the general direction we needed to head. This route will take us pass El Morro and El Malpais - two national designated sites. We crossed the border into New Mexico and were getting pretty hungry - Gil as usual prefers to eat out than to eat in, but I did not have much hope of finding a restaurant. We were looking for an area where we could pull over and park when we ran into a little town, and as we were looking around we noticed a Mexican restaurant with plenty of room to park in the front - bingo. Gil was happy.
As we got close to El Morro, we got the tail end of a pretty nasty thunder and hail storm. Since it looked like the rain was heading straight for the park we decided to skip it - we can leave this one for another trip. We continued on and arrived at Bandera Volcano and Ice Caves just an hour before close. The place is part of El Malpais - an area with 29 volcanoes, and although it's a national park, this area is private. The road to get in there was an adventure. It was gravel and a washboard, so it was a pretty bumpy ride and we had to slow down to 5mph - Gil was beginning to question if we could make out of there in one piece. Thankfully there was plenty of space to park.
After a short stop at the gift shop where we paid for our tickets and got advice and directions from the owners we headed out. We walked first to the Ice cave. The Ice cave was 31 degrees F- while it was 95 degrees outside. It was a nice way to cool off from the heat and I took the cold like a true adopted Buffalonian in a tank top and capris. We then hiked up to the volcano crater at an elevation of just over 8K feet. on the hike we could glance at the top of other volcanoes, there were about 15 visible from our walk.
At five o'clock or so we headed north to get back on Interstate 40. The nearest town was Grant, but it was too early for dinner since we had a late lunch. I was hoping to get some miles under our belt - since we had skipped El Morro, perhaps we could use the time to make it to other stops. My goal was to get close to Albuquerque, but tired from all sightseeing I was quickly overruled when the guys spotted a sign for a really inexpensive campground at a Casino.
We stopped at Sky City Casino and RV park for the night in Acoma, NM. The park had a shuttle that would come pick us up at the site and drive us to the casino. By signing up for their card, we got discounts on dinner and they gave us $10 play at the casino. We are not gamblers but hey it's free money - I turned my $5 into $13. We are roughly 1800 miles from home and should be there Friday or Saturday.
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