Goodbye Grand Canyon, hello Santa Fe. Unfortunately it wasn't quite that easy, as we were facing eight plus hours of driving depending on how slow Dad decided to go. Never fear though, Mom had planned plenty of interesting stops.
Out first adventure of the day was at the Meteor Crater. If you're wondering, this is a large crater that was created when a meteor hit the earth. In addition to the crater, there is also a meteor museum and several different attractions. Remy made new friends upon arrival.
Our first taste of the meteor museum was the 4D meteor experience, which was a little bit of a movie and a little bit of a ride. We were the only ones present so we had the whole room to ourselves. The screens gave us a few meteor facts and then we were taken on a mission to explore a meteor in space. The seats moved around on hydraulic lifts and we got quite the ride. Remy stuck out the whole thing despite getting a wee bit scared that we weren't going to make it back from outer space. In the end we were all safe and sound and we even saved Earth in the process. Not bad for a four year old!
The observation deck of the crater provided us an excellent view, although it was exceptionally windy. We all had to hold onto our hats and it wasn't really possible to talk about anything so we only spent a minute or two outside.
Once back inside and safe from the wind we were able to leisurely make our way through the museum. We learned a bit about meteors, including what they can be made of, how heavy they are, and other famous instance of meteors hitting the earth. When this crater was first discovered there was a lot of doubt that it was created by a meteor. The discoverers pioneered a new field of science to study meteor impacts. The site was also utilized to test early astronaut suits as the crater is very similar to craters on the moon.
The next stop on our trip was the petrified forest. We did several short hikes throughout the park, and got to see a whole host of interesting rocks and rock formations. The most famous, and the namesake of the park, are the petrified trees.
The trees are scattered throughout the park, and each one is as solid as a rock as the organic structure has been replaced by silica and other minerals, eventually turning into quartz. It looks like the trees have been invaded by crystals. They are only vaguely tree-like and you would probably guess that they were just funny looking rocks if someone didn't tell you that they were actually trees, especially due to the fact that most of them have lost quite a bit of their height.
Our second hike was through the crystal forest, where there were fewer trees but they appeared to be much more crystalized than the trees on our previous hike. Whoever named these hikes did a good job. The wind remained deafening. We pretended to be airplanes taking off. Remy got close to succeeding.
For our final hike we walked down into a small gulley surrounded by blue mesas. The name of the hike of course was Blue Mesa. The gulley sheltered us from the wind, but the top of the mesas was definitely the strongest wind we had felt the whole time. Whew! I'm glad those petrified trees weigh a million pounds or they might have blown away. The walls of the gulley were made of a blueish stone, and each one had several very distinct layers of rock. Dad spent most of the hike trying to convince Remy that this rock or that rock was fossilized dinosaur poop. He didn't fall for it. We might need to acquire a more gullible child if Dad is going to succeed in his joking.
The last few miles of the park were actually some of the most scenic. I believe that section is called the painted desert, but we only got a short glimpse while we were driving as we had a lot of miles to cover. We had dinner at a very nice little brewery in Albuquerque and then pulled into our RV site just as the clock hit 9. Whew. What a day!
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