With Lynn on our first visit to Petrified Forest National Monument. This is the centennial year for the national monument and I found the 1906 photograph displays at the visitor center beside contemporary 2006 shots a visual delight. We did all the "tourist" mini-hikes, but the backcountry wilderness beckons for some future adventures! Once again that annual National Parks Pass came in handy.

The loop hikes through the various petrified forests were amazing. Blue Mesa and the Teepees had very interesting badlands geology. Newspaper Rock however, was a disappointment considering some of the other petroglyph clusters in the state (Sears Point or V-Bar-V come to mind). This site pales beside what I consider the "definitive" newspaper rock near Moab Utah...

We had the Puerco Pueblo pretty much to ourselves as the temperatures hovered around the freezing point. At 2pm a convoy of cars appeared led by a Ranger vehicle. A group of about 20 people were about to embark on a Ranger-guided tour of the ruins site...

Humorous exit from the national monument when the Ranger asks; "Ok, did you folks steal anything?". Guess they have a petrified wood theft problem...