Painted Desert, Petrified Forest & into Albuquerque

Beauty and flowers can even be found in the desert. This is part of Crystal Forest in the Petrified Forest.
Soooo! They are serious about keeping you safe.
This is known as Agate Bridge. The tree is petrified and forming a nice little bridge.
Puerco Pueblo ruins were built about 1250 and may have housed 1200 people. They have stabilized one of the 100 rooms of this pueblo.



Petroglyphs at the ruins.
Several views of the Painted Desert.

These formations are know as the Tepee's due to the shape. They are layers of blues, purples and grays due to the iron, carbon, manganese and other minerals in the grounds.
One of the logs in the Crystal Forest. There was a lot of amethyst and quartz crystals in the logs that over time people have stolen. The stones really make the trees beautiful.

Painted Desert is really an awesome place to see.

Some decorative work of a local store using crystals and petrified tree pieces.
This man was walking through the parking lot with the bird on his shoulder. He allowed me to take a photo of them.
Balanced rocks as we waiting for the chance to end up on the road.

We spotted a rock climber while out on a drive in the New Mexico desert.
Soda Dam was made by centuries of calcium & carbonate deposits from a spring that bubbles to the surface. It is 300 ft long, 50 ft high & 50 ft wide at the bottom. It also has natural caves these people climbed into explore.


jemez State Monument is of a village of Giusewa and occupied by the ancestors of the Jemez Indians before the Spanish arrived in 1541.