An Unplanned Drive Through The Petrified Forest National Park In Arizona -- A Photo Essay
/Heading northeast from Phoenix to Santa Fe, the road signs to the Petrified Forest National Park are not promising. From the Interstate, it looks like scrub land. But a mere mile off the road, the land opens up into an otherworldly kaleidoscope landscape of desert reds, browns, and oranges.
We figured the best way to express the Park's beauty was through the photos Nicole took along the way....
“National parks and reserves are an integral aspect of intelligent use of natural resources. It is the course of wisdom to set aside an ample portion of our natural resources as national parks and reserves, thus ensuring that future generations may know the majesty of the earth as we know it today.”
“Without enough wilderness America will change. Democracy, with its myriad personalities and increasing sophistication, must be fibred and vitalized by regular contact with outdoor growths — animals, trees, sun warmth and free skies — or it will dwindle and pale.”
“There is a delight in the hardy life of the open. There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm. The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value.”
“If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.”
Like this post? Want to read more about Travis and Nicole's travel adventures? Check out Hiking And Biking On The John Wayne Pioneer Trail In Washington State.
Then sign up for the Sunday Shoutout, our weekly email newsletter providing a link to that week's blog posts and a few other odds and ends we are interested in.