Copy of an e-mail sent
to
Jerry
& Joey
April 20, 2006
Page 1 of 6
Page 1
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Phoenix To
Petrified
Forest
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Page
2
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To Canyon De Chelly
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Page
3
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To Monument Valley
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Page
4
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To Mesa Verde - 1
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Page
5
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To Mesa
Verde - 2
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Page
6
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To
Chaco
Canyon, Bisti, and the Climate |
Home |
|
Suggestions for
your trip to Monument Valley |
Hi
Jerry &
Joey
You
have a great trip coming up to one of our
favorites places. Here is my take on neat
sights
along the way to Monument Valley, Mesa Verde NP and other
parks that we have visited and enjoyed. You can see the
Four Corners sites in
any order, not necessarily the way I have them arranged from southwest
to
northeast. Or you can pick
and
choose.
I would suggest taking
a pair of binoculars to view
wild game like Pronghorns, birds of pray and such. And for any
senior, if you don't have a
Golden Age Passport for natonal parks, you should have one -- it's only
$10 and it's good for life.
I don't claim to know
everything about all these areas but we have been
thru this part of the country a few times and have stopped frequently
whenever
there was anything to see or do along the road. Some routes
like Hwy 60
out of Phoenix, I have been taking in different seasons since
the '60s and and still enjoy the
views and the people. Have a
safe and wonderful journey to Four Corners, a land of awesome beauty.
Phoenix
to
Petrified Forest Nat'l Park
Highways 60, 77 and 180
Hwy 60 gets you off the interstate and it takes you to the beginning of the Four Corners area.
It's a beautiful drive thru the White Mountains and traffic is light. You can get on Hwy 60 in Phoenix
or Florence. It
takes you
thru the hilly mining towns like Superior and Globe
(Jim Vernetti
was raised there). The road goes thru Salt
River Canyon -- it's scenic and unspoiled. The grade down to the river
is
fairly long so gear down
and prevent brake fade.
After
the town of Show
Low, take Hwy 77 to Holbrook.
(Although it's a little longer, we like to go farther east to Springerville because we like
the
scenery of extinct volcanos and cinder cones along the way. After the
volcano remnants, turn north
on Hwy
180 just
before Springerville to
Petrified Forest NP and Holbrook.) You
may want to take a look at
the Wigwam Motel
in Holbrook,
and also the neat vintage cars -- an ol' Route 66
classic. There are motels and restaurants in Holbrook and it's about 20
miles east to Petrified Forest NP where we start our tour.
.
Maps
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Petrified
Forest NP Photo
Tour Time Chart
Paleo-Puebloan Chart
Park Map
We start our tour of Four Corners with this wonderful park. A
few hours here
should do it unless you go for hikes or take lots of
pictures. You can go from south
to north if you take Hwy 180 E out of
Holbrook. Don't pick up petrified wood or anything else in a
national
park -- it's a major crime and big fines too. For the
basics
when perusing the National Park web sites, start with "Plan Your Visit," "Activities" and "History
and Culture."
Rainbow Forest Museum and
visitor
inforation is at the south entrance. We
always stop at visitor centers
for maps, local
information, see
their museum displays, watch their movies about
the park and
get a schedule of the many wonderful interpretive and special events
programs
-- adds a lot
to any visit. We
like to
stop at all turnouts as we go thru any park. There is another
visitor center at the north end but there it is called the Painted
Desert -- optional (means lower
priorty, skip it if you do not have the
time).
.
About Maps
Four
Corners Map
This
map is helpful only by having
all the parks
grouped together
on one page to see the relationship. We are making a giant loop in
our
travels by starting with Petrified Forest NP on Hwy I-40 in Arizona,
going
north to
visit some Four Corners parks, and then
ending
back on Hwy I-40 in New Mexico. This Four Corners map is not a
good road map -- it's an
abbreviated map
that lacks details and
some road options.
|
More
about maps
AAA folded maps are good and they
include
primary and secondary roads and
covers a large area. For greater
detail like for jeep-trails to old mining camps, we use DeLorme's Atlas &
Gazetteer Series, one for each state. Our Garmin GPS
works well even on
backcountry dirt roads. It's a good combination for us. If you want to
use your laptop, National
Geographic puts out a nice topographic map set with 3-D views and is
Bluetooth/GPS capable.
.
Some of what
we
saw on the way to Petrified NP
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Salt
River Canyon -- looking northeast
Salt
River
Canyon -- looking southwest
The
road
winds down to the Salt River
(with new and old bridges)
Salt
River
Volcanic
cinder cones west of
Springerville
Casa
Malpais, AD 1268-1400, Mogollon ruins
west of Springerville
See Springerville Visitor Center
for entry
Wigwam
Motel in Holbrook -- Route 66 classic with wonderful old cars
A
bad Japanese imitation of the "Cowboy
Silhouette" at Petrified
Forest
Petrified
Forest
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