{"id":54433,"date":"2023-03-19T00:01:04","date_gmt":"2023-03-19T00:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=54433"},"modified":"2023-03-19T00:01:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T00:01:04","slug":"national-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=54433","title":{"rendered":"Look what I found!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK, Ariz.<\/strong> — My journey toward the Pacific Ocean took me on an unexpected detour … and I saw something that blew my noggin.<\/p>\n

I took an exit off Interstate 40 toward the Petrified Forest National Park, the entry to which is just off the freeway. I entered the park — flashing my lifetime pass granted to us old folks at all national parks — and then drove about 30 miles along a road through the park.<\/p>\n

I had to wait a while before I saw actual petrified trees, but the scenery along the way, through the Painted Desert, was a sight to behold.<\/p>\n

Then I reached a stretch of park land strewn with logs that once stood as tall timber. They had become stones. I had been to the park once before; my wife and I brought her mother here, but we didn’t see much of the park. My mother-in-law’s lack of mobility restricted what we were able to see. Today was a bit different. I was able to walk great distances and Toby and Puppy and I made a trek along the petrified logs.<\/p>\n

I hadn’t expected this to be so cool. Frankly, I am looking forward to seeing the Grand Canyon soon. The petrified forest was — initially! — a diversion for me.<\/p>\n

Then I laid eyes on it.<\/p>\n

My advice to anyone venturing this way? If you’ve got some time, jump off the freeway and drive just a stone’s throw north. Enter the park and take a leisurely drive. It’s worth your time.<\/p>\n

Pretty damn cool, man!<\/p>\n

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — My journey toward the Pacific Ocean took me on an unexpected detour … and I saw something that blew my noggin. I took an exit off Interstate 40 toward the Petrified Forest National Park, the entry to which is just off the freeway. I entered the park — flashing … Continue reading Look what I found!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6327,10144],"class_list":["post-54433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-national-parks","tag-petrified-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54433"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54436,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54433\/revisions\/54436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}