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| this old place used petrified wood as building material! |
On our way to Winslow yesterday we stopped at a few rock shops in the area, sorting through literally tons of petrified wood scraps looking for just the right piece. Inside one of the shops there were endless displays of intensely polished rounds, stumps, book ends, etc. but we thought they were gaudy and unreal looking. Outside, in a huge fenced in yard, there were piles and piles of natural "wood" along with mountains of geodes, sandstone pieces, obsidian chunks, etc. I've never been to a rock shop, or a rock show of any kind, I was flabbergasted and had trouble tearing myself away from the mounds.
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| a jillion geodes |
We didn't really have a plan for the rest of our day except for checking out "downtown" Winslow and then trying to find a small city park/reservoir I'd heard about.
The tiny town of Winslow, Arizona has a number of nice murals, but one is famous.....
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| "Its a girl, my lord, in a flatbed ford, slowin down to take a look at me...." |
My only directions to McHood Park Lake (sometimes called Clear Creek Reservoir) were to head out of town, drive over the ditch by the prison and keep going til you seen a sign. Alrighty then.
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| lunch with a view |
McHood Park contains a small day use area and campground with no hook ups on the shores of the Reservoir. It was a Saturday afternoon but the park wasn't very busy. A celebration of some sort was going on in the day use area and there were a few trailers in the campground but otherwise we had most of the place to ourselves.
We explored a bit on foot then took the jeep past the campground and out into the surrounding desert to see what we could see.
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| a dredge at the boat launch |
It is always a delight to find water in such a dry environment. We drove over the small earthen dam and found a lovely marshy area below, full of birds.
I was still looking for the part of the creek that flowed through a deep, narrow canyon so we left McHood Park, crossed the creek on rt. 99 and turned onto a dirt road heading into the flat empty desert.
We drove through interesting rock formations and lots of sagebrush but didn't appear to be getting anywhere so Dave made a sharp left and we made our own track toward what we thought would be the canyon.
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| huge boulders |
I was afraid to drive to far out into the desert in case we came upon the lip of the canyon before we wanted to......so we left the jeep and hiked out.
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| almost at the edge |
Lots of cool rocks at our feet made it a slow walk, and I did take a few for my collection.
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| tiny stones, about thumb sized |
Our perseverance was rewarded...
Tomorrow we're off toward Williams, Arizona. Its been fun!
You deserved that piece of petrified wood for being so good the day before:) If you ever get to Capitol Reef NP with us, we'll take you to an area of dinosaur bones and petrified wood that you are permitted to gather. You can only take so many pounds a year. But we don't need pounds, just some pieces:) What a great reward for your search! The river is just gorgeous! Safe travels to Williams! These are all new areas to us.
ReplyDeleteYou deserved that piece of petrified wood for being so good the day before:) If you ever get to Capitol Reef NP with us, we'll take you to an area of dinosaur bones and petrified wood that you are permitted to gather. You can only take so many pounds a year. But we don't need pounds, just some pieces:) What a great reward for your search! The river is just gorgeous! Safe travels to Williams! These are all new areas to us.
ReplyDeleteLove the photo of Dave "standing' on the corner." :-)) So glad you found your perfect piece of petrified wood. It's really hard for me to hold myself back from collecting special rocks, too. Every once in a while a special one sneaks in to our trailer. :-)
ReplyDeletep.s. Not sure if you've ever been to La Posada Hotel in Winslow. It's one of the original Fred Harvey Hotels and is beautifully restored.
ReplyDeleteWow! A new place to see in that great area - love that canyon. Oh the lure of unique and beautiful rocks - so hard to not bring them all home :-)))
ReplyDeleteA new area for us too although Steve was in the area about the same time last year. Im so glad you like to auto hike or else we would not know of this secret places.
ReplyDeleteTiny stones in the pocket :)I hope Beluga can still take it in.
Im going to check all your collections one day.