road trippin' to NV (cont.)

Driving through the northern part of New Mexico and Arizona, I encountered snow flurries while driving. This was a first for me so I got a little excited and took pictures.

I had low expectations about Petrified Forest. I have seen of pieces petrified wood before and did not think much about a whole national park dedicated to it. I was pleasantly mistaken. First off, the park ranger gave me free entrance into the park even though my volunteer National Park pass was a couple months expired! That would be the first and only time I had used it. Secondly, the park offers much more than just petrified wood. There was also beautiful mesas, a painted desert, ancient petroglyphs and of course, large broken pieces of petrified wood from a prehistoric forest. 

The painted desert

Blue mesas

A wasteland of petrified wood

I got someone to take a pic of me. It was cold!

I stopped for the night in Flagstaff, AZ where they received 15 inches of snow the night before. I was thrilled! It was the most snow I have ever seen in my life- so I went a little crazy: throwing snowballs at myself, skating on the ice, snow angel, etc.

I kinda just leaned back on this one

oh Xmas tree!

On the last driving day I entered the state of Nevada and stopped by the Hoover dam to marvel at the achievement of human ingenuity. As opposed as I am with man-made dams in general, the sheer size and technical feat of building a structure that large was amazing.