The Painted Desert took our breath away. Driving in, it is so unassuming. We were a little confused because it doesn’t look like like much and then suddenly you are surrounded by these drastically changing landscapes. We heard so many “WOWs” from the backseat!

The dry riverbeds were so beautiful. I love the random petrified tree trunks at the bottom of the photo.

Jonah, the (petrified) tree hugger. He told me he was going to do this before we even got to the park.

So there were a few drop off areas today that made me nervous with this kid. He has NO FEAR. He’s an adrenaline seeking dare devil who doesn’t always listen when it comes to safety. I’ve had to check in with Jason a few times to be sure it’s not my postpartum anxiety in overdrive. NOPE. It’s just Jonah being Jonah. And I’m seriously nervous about the Grand Canyon. Stroller? Tether? I’ve never considered a tether in almost 21 years of parenting but it might happen….or we do a Grand Canyon drive by only lol.

The big kids have realized that if they ask me to take their photo that it’ll likely land in a Chatbook. All 3 asked me today!

Z has been saying “Hi!” a lot. He’s even thrown out a “Hi DaDa” a few times. We are excited for him to start talking but also a little nervous because he’s very…..uh…..opinionated! 😆

 

There’s no place like this. And that’s what we loved about it. It’s bizarre and mind boggling and different than anything else we will see while traveling. Definitely a place that none of us will soon forget. We all walked around amazed and that made for a pretty great adventure.

The textures were perfection.

This pic is so them. Chill Duder just hanging out and Jonah on the move.

It’s hard to describe the scope of the scattered petrified wood. Some are small and some are huge. Some are buried in the ground or jet out the side of canyon. They greatly vary in size and color. This National Park requires a lot of driving but it’s so, so worth it!

We really wanted to hit the petroglyph park near Santa Fe while we were there, but we were too sick. So we were pretty excited to find these inside the Petrified Forest!

The biggest of all the petrified trees we saw.