Of quartz it is....

My next to the last day of travel found me in the Petrified Forest National Park. I'd been here as a kid, but the burning sensation left my the merciless sun left no other room for memories.

The sun is still there, but oh nelly is this a wonderful place! Petrified wood is found all over the world, but only here was it found in true forest fashion--carpeting the landscape like a quartz reminder of the slow geologic processes of time. Of course, much of it was removed by tourists before the park became protected. Even today, the park says it loses about 1 ton of wood a month. This is both sad and sickening, when you realize that what makes this place special is the sheer intensity of the amount of petrified wood found. Outside the park? Well, it's just another pretty rock, of fairly low value.

Add to that the plethora of petrified wood available for sale in sizes large and small outside of the park, and I seriously wonder at the mental capacity of the visitors who steal the stuff out of the National Park.

Anyway, rant complete!

Now on to the next sight of the day: Meteor Crater! Words fail to describe the sheer awesomeness of this (privately owned) hole in the ground. They try: they've put a little tiny 6 foot astronaut that you can barely see through a high power telescope in the center of the crater, and that does give a bit of a hint as to the magnitude of the thing that lies before your eyes. It is a wonder.

So burned and seriously fatigued, the next day I finally made it into Claremont! Now for a week of hooking up (with cable and phone service at least) and learning the ins and outs of CMC.