On our way out of Flagstaff we stopped at Meteor Crater which was exactly as the name says and supposedly one of the largest in the world. It was quite impressive and is actually used by NASA to train their astronauts.
Part of our journey today followed the legendary Route 66 which was a 2000 mile journey from Chicago to Los Angeles. We actually saw a group of bikers and their support vehicles who were recreating the trip.
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| Painted Desert |
Today we visited the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. The Petrified Forest consists of the remains of trees from the dinosaur era which have been petrified, with some of the trees displaying root and trunk structure as if they had just fallen over. The original trees were carried by raging floodwaters during which the branches and bark were stripped off, leaving just the trunks to be petrified over time.
The Painted Desert was really spectacular and as we were blessed with sunshine all the colours were on display. We treated ourselves an ice-cream at the Visitors Centre and it had to be the largest single scoop I’ve ever seen.
Chinle was the place I agonised most over in trying to select accommodation. There are only two options and on Trip Advisor, both get lots of negative reviews. I eventually settled on the Best Western and we were pleasantly surprised to find it wasn’t as bad as painted. The on-site restaurant was quite acceptable too and the meals we had were huge servings and both under $10. Another common criticism was about the dogs roaming the streets. We’ve only seen one but there were a number of horses roaming around.
Chinle does have a very depressing appearance and the vast majority of the population is Navajo. Still we’re not here for the town and tomorrow we have a tour of Canyon de Chelly (Shay) in the morning to look forward to.
