National Parks

Petrified Forest/Painted Desert – Exploring My World 

by any1mark
I was a tree 211 Million years ago

211 Million years ago, this was a tree.  Today it’s an eighty foot long fossil.  Now there are only a few hundred full size and thousands of partial tress here. For $20 pass that is good for a week you get this and the Painted Desert too.

The basics are during the rise of the dinosaurs life was a forest here.  Shallow water with a prefect muddy low oxygen shallow waterway… add millions of years and here you are.  This area resembles the Badlands with color.  It’s in a barren open meadow landscape.  Although fairly flat, the dry area and erosion of heavy winter moisture has made for a.surreal world.

There are multiple visit centers.  Plenty of history here.  Good displays of what preceeded Dinosaurs and the human impact.  This spreads over 30 miles of pavement.  Good for all ages.  You walk among the petrified trees.  People sit on a Triassiac tree for family pictures!

Ok eye candy below

Spring brings color
Random piece of 500 lbs of petrified wood
The teepees
Most Northern part of Painted Desert

This piece of paradise is an hour from Flagstaff and three hours south of the Grand Canyon.  I40 runs through the Northern part and Holbrook, AZ had food half hour away. 

Like Your National Parks? Congress Changing Rules 

by any1mark

If they distract you with eliminating healthcare, what are they thinking?  The energy sector is huge in the new administration’s cabinet.  Guess why?  Click below its easier

http://www.businessinsider.com/congress-lays-groundwork-to-get-rid-of-federal-land-and-national-parks-2017-1

Roosevelt Lake-  Exploring My World 

by any1mark

An oasis in the High Desert. This impounded lake is surrounded by mountains and the stately Saguaro cacti.  Located about an hour and a half out of Pheonix this is an unbelievable drive and set of short hikes.


Of course,  those with a boat it’s prefect.   I have only an inflatable kayak…  The wife is funny about going out on a lake 350 feet deep in an inflatable craft.  There are 3 boat ramps and they are about 120 get wide and quarter mile long.   You can drive down them in a car,  just stay out if the way. 

There are several roads (some paved) that lead to the water.   I mean to the waters edge.   Which means be careful because you are alone here for the most part.   But several places give you the chance to be alone.   The Saguaro cacti are plentiful.  The views great on grey days.  
I can tell you there are cliff dwellings in a National Monument but they close at 4pm.  I missed out today.  


The Saguaro cacti take 75 years to start is first “arm”.  The one above is probably in the 200-250 year range.   It’s maybe 25-30 feet tall. 

Travel Tag

by any1mark

Thank you for the passing of the Travel Tag to Shannon H, her answers were really good.  You can find her here, https://adventuresinthirtysomething.com/2016/10/01/the-travel-tag-whats-your-adventure/comment-page-1/#comment-1277.  Great pictures, too!  That means read this first, so that I maybe be upstaged after ward. 😉

Seriously, I love a good challenge.  So here goes…

The rules are easy and fun. Just answer the questions below, repost the questions and tag fellow travel lovers, let them know you tagged them and let your blogosphere travels begin!
You are leaving tomorrow to start a life in a new country, where would you go?

This is a crazy thought but I’m going to Costa Rica!  It has mountains, beaches, jungles, Jaguars, great weather….. The whale sharks stop by for a visit parts of the year.  Take away hurricanes, tropical storms, and the “do I have to understand and speak Spanish?”.  It’s prefect! Hey this is there…Corcovado National Park.  Photo stolen from Costa Rica Vacations.  The week of November 11, 2016 is a best deal to go there! The site say so!


You can take someone for a weekend away to the place you had the best holidays ever, where would that be and who would you take to go with you?

Not fair!  The world, the US simply has too much to offer.  I will reflect upon my blogs title, and answer appropriately.  My wife would kill me (she is an officer of the law, really she would kill me slowly with 12 bullets in painful places) if I left her behind.  So that said we are heading for Mexico to visit Chichen Itza!  It’s over 400 feet of pyramid and if you clap your hands it sounds like a bird that lives there!  How cool it that!  Ok, we are arriving on the Spring Equinox to see the snake crawl down the pyramid!  Yes people, by trick of the sunlight a detailed snake actually looks like it popping out of the stonework.  Then we flew to Australia, because while never going there before, I gain a day to see Ayer’s Rock! And maybe Sydney.


You can get married wherever you want to, your budget is limitless, what is your choice?

Been there, done that!  In Honolulu on the Pacific ocean in a city park!  Of course, the budget wasn’t limitless.  Meaning it was us, a surfer dude for a priest, and a guy who does professional photography for surfing, and Hawaiian sports.  We couldn’t afford to bring others along. 😉. But maybe, move it to the Green Sand Beach on the Big Island of Hawaii.

During your travels you can bring back home one animal as a pet, which one would you pick?

I have two kitties from a trip to West Virgina 15 years ago.  They wouldn’t understand more cats.  Soiwoukd pick something interesting like cougarormountain lion.  They would probably not get along with the rest of the household. But look at them, they are majestic animals.  They might try to eat you, but all animals have issues.

You can get back in time and relive one family trip, which one?  

We didn’t do many family trips.  Most were in my formative years, way too far back to remember much.  There’s a time I cut off circulation to Dads leg when my parent didn’t notice a ship’s horn behind their 4 year old son.  That was Sauté St Marie in Michigan.  But what I can remember, my trip to Montana with my Dad.  We drove three days from Cleveland, Oh to owe an where he went to Grad School.  I saw the west for the first time.  Wide open spaces, real mountains, giant horizons, Yellowstone, Wall Drug and the Corn Palace, the Black Hills, the Little Big Horn.  I was hooked on the American West

What is the first thing you would pack for a one year travel around the world?

Water filteration pump.  There’s a lot of places off the beaten path I would love to go.  Fresh water is a premium and often shared with parasites and other nasties.

What would your fantasy 100th birthday destination be, and why?

Angel falls, Venezuela!  I would be happy to be alive and aware of where I was.  But the highest waterfalls in the world.  I would need the plane tour.  I have lots of years to save up for it. But it’s really called Kerepakupai Meru. And why?  It’s the biggest waterfall in the world!!


During your travel you can learn one sport to become a pro, what would that be?

This is a travel answer, soccer.  I lack to general coordination to kick a ball in a certain direction at top speed.  Let alone use the head to do the same. They make lots of cash too!