May 25

Miles traveled 348
Total miles traveled 4166

We left the Grand Canyon and traveled south to Flagstaff and dropped the trailer off at a campground. We then did something we haven't done in a few weeks, drove east. We visited Petrified Forest National Park. In the north end of the park was the painted dessert that looked like pink and blue sand dunes. Then we saw petroglyphs, ancient Indian picture carvings in rock. What we really enjoyed though was the petrified wood. There were many petrified logs strewn in the fields. Some were whole logs, some looked as if they had been sawed by a chainsaw ready to be split and there were also chunks lying on the ground. Since the cellulose of the wood was replaced by ash and the other surrounding minerals during the petrification process they are multi-colored rocks that show all the features of the original tree. Some include gems of amethyst, quartz, sapphire and many others.
Throughout the day we enjoyed seeing several thunderstorms around us since we could see for so far. The clouds were amazing. On the way back to Flagstaff we went through a severe thunderstorm. It was awesome and included a rainbow and much needed car wash.