National Park #2 || ARIZONA!



national park #2 : painted desert & petrified forest

Our final leg of the trip into Arizona was interrupted when we whizzed past one of those telltale brown signs indicating proximity to a national park. We had to. So there we were, turning off the highway onto the entrance drive to the Petrified Forest National Park in AZ.

We ended up driving all the way through the painted desert and the petrified forest, stopping along the way to take pictures and convince Kalyn not to smuggle out a piece of shiny rock-wood for a necklace. Ha. We were shocked when we left that the park ranger’s version of inspecting our vehicle [for illegally collected items] was her saying, “Did you do any collecting today?”

“No.”

“Okay, have a great day.”

Really? Well, I guess they can’t legally force you to submit to a full search, but it seemed silly that that’s all they did to control the inventory of a national park. *Sigh.

petrified wood

petrified forest || pretty pieces

saguaro field



Moving on, we jumped back onto the road and picked back up on our planned itinerary, which meant we were headed to our final destination: Sam’s apartment. We pulled into the driveway and took deep breaths of relief that we had safely navigated our way across the country and had arrived whole. We wasted very little time unloading the mini trailor attached to Kalyn’s jeep and transferring her life into Sam’s place. Sam’s uncle Fred came by to help with the heavy lifting. Kalyn and I made dinner and then the four of us played a little pool volleyball before calling it a night.

 

Tomorrow = Grand Canyon!

**exciiiiiiiiiiiiiiited. J

xo | cmd