High Winds in the Painted Desert

The drive from Oklahoma City to Albuquerque was tedious and long, passing through miles and miles of empty, dry terrain, all the while wondering what would happen if we miss a good opportunity to buy gasoline. It seems to me like anything can happen anywhere, but especially in the desert. After something like nine hours we arrived in Albuquerque and readied ourselves for the final push westward.

Setting out soon after dawn, we drove an incredibly windy stretch of I-40 towards Petrified Forest National Park (AZ). The gusts were reaching up to 60 mph, making car handling difficult since we were carrying a large bag on the roof. The winds also kicked up a great deal of dust, which obscured some of the distant views once we reached Petrified Forest, and made lighting the gas grill difficult. Even under shelter and behind a wall of earth, the winds were still blowing at about 20 mph.

Petrified Forest NP contains some of the most beautiful specimens of petrified wood in the United States--relics from when this desert land was once on the equator of the supercontinent Pangaea and was home to huge tracts of tropic forests. It's hard to believe from looking at it now, but 200 million years ago this area was green and wet, full of small dinosaurs and other strange reptiles. Some of the ancient trees were preserved when they were covered with sediment and not allowed to decay due to a lack of oxygen. Over time, mineral-rich waters flowing through the sediment penetrated the plant tissue and replaced it with carbon, cobalt, iron oxide, chromium, and other deposits which hardened and made the wood petrified. The tissues eventually decayed and a stone mold of the tree remained. Petrified wood is surprisingly heavy, but was often carried off by explorers in the region seeking a beautiful keepsake. Unfortunately some large deposits here were plundered long ago, and only tree fragments remain.

The Painted Desert.

Our campground was an hour's ride away in the Arizona State Park Homolovi Ruins. The wind was still in full force and the highway was now covered in a hazy blanket of wind-blown dust. About a mile from our destination, traffic stopped and stood still. They had closed the interstate because at least three accidents occurred due to lack of visibility. Luckily, we were able to ride down the shoulder to Homolovi and set up camp for the night, making stew on a small liquid fuel stove that resisted the wind better than the gas grill.