National Parks - Arizona

Grand Canyon National Park

9/18/1983 Drove up to the Visitor Center directly outside of the village of Grand Canyon. Checked things out, then took Rim Walk towards Grand Canyon village. Walked from Grand Canyon village back to Visitor Center. Drove towards Hermits Rest, stopping at various look-outs along the way (West rim drive). Had hot dogs at the Rest. Drove back to Visitor Center, freshened up and looked through small museum. Saw slide show. Then drove along East rim drive to scenic overlook. Best sight of Grand Canyon. Then drove to Desert View (overlook of Painted Desert) and Watch Tower. Drove back towards the main entrance, stopped at Tusayan Ruins.

Spectacular view!

Yeah, it's a long way down, Ken

Great colors

Me at the rim

Close-up of the Colorado

Tusayan Ruins

Petrified Forest National Park

9/19/1983 Drove to Petrified Forest National Park, starting at Painted Desert. Visited visitor center, saw movie. Visited many outlooks over the Painted Desert, then drove through Petrified Forest. Stopped at Newspaper Rock, saw the tepees, walked around the Blue Mesa. At one stop at the Mesa, Ken heard disturbance to the left, looked over just in time to see his lens cap go skating off over a rock at high speed (due to high wind). View over rock turned out to be a nasty cliff - bye-bye cap! Drove down to Agate Bridge, crystal forest and Agate House.

The "Painted Desert"

Ken checking out the badlands

Like a sliced up log ...

Amazing colors

Me checking out a huge section of log

More log sections

5/23/2001 On to Petrified Forest NP. Saw a film at the visitor center then drove the park road. Saw the vistas of the Painted Desert, then the fields of petrified logs, some of which looked like they were just cut. Left the park as it closed ... .

The park sign

The badlands and petrified wood

A nice view in the setting sun

Intense colors

Me on a not-so-comfy seat

Saguaro National Park

4/12/1992 Continued driving through Saguaro National Monument with views of thousands of cacti ... .

A couple of views ...

... of the saguaro