Our hike through the wilderness area at Petrified Forest National Park in Northern Arizona may now be viewed on You Tube. .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPXE4AQBAbc
Posts Tagged ‘Northern Arizona’
Petrified Forest National Park
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Petroglyphs and Wilderness Area Hike Videos
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008Please visit our website lonestartravelers.com to view two short videos filmed in Petrified Forest National Park.
Summer Solstice and Petroglyphs Petrified Forest National Park
Saturday, June 21st, 2008
There are many solstice markers in Petrified Forest National Park that scientists from all over the world gather at on the first day of summer to study and document. One is located at Puerco Pueblo, site of the prehistoric Puebloan ruins. A petroglyph in the form of a spiral, easily viewed from an overlook, is pecked into the rock. Amidst several petroglyphs that have been chiseled here this one alone interacts with the sun. On the day of the summer solstice a beam of sunlight makes it’s way through a chasm in the rock directly to the center of the symbol. Researchers believe this was used by the ancient ones as a solar calendar.
Puerco Pueblo Petrified Forest National Park
Friday, June 20th, 2008
Puerco Pueblo at mile marker 11 is a partially excavated Puebloan village occupied between AD 1250 and 1380. A 1/3 mile paved trail explores this large site of 100-125 rooms built around a rectangular plaza near the Puerco River. In this usage of the Spanish word puerco means dirty or muddy. Within the plaza are 3 kivas or underground ceremonial chambers. These ancient people, possibly related to the Hopi and Zuni were the Southwest’s first farmers. They grew corn, beans and squash supplementing their diet with wild plants and small game including rabbits and prairie dogs. Due to the large amount of chipped stone artifacts found here (mostly petrified wood) they probably manufactured tools and we do know from uncovering items such as imported pottery that they actively traded with other groups of ancestral people. A series of severe droughts beginning in A.D. 1215 lasting until A.D. 1299 contributed to the decline in population and eventual abandonment of the site by A.D. 1400. The culture of these ancient people lives on in the works of writers and artists of today. Many present day Hopi and Zuni people practice their religion and hold ceremonies in kivas.
Route 66 Petrified Forest National Park
Saturday, June 14th, 2008
Petrified Forest National Park is the only National Park that Route 66, the first interstate highway system in the United States, offering 2,200 miles of open road from Chicago to Los Angeles ending at the beach in Santa Monica California crossed through. 6 miles into the park the line of the roadbed and the telephone poles in front of you mark the path of the famous “Main Street of America.” Of those days gone by, a 1932 Studebaker commemorates this landmark.