Head West on I40 and guess what you can find........

This area is a Geologists dream!  Inactive Volcanoes, Ice Caves, Mesas, Mountains, Desert, Petrified Forest, Meteor Crater, Painted Desert and Fossils galore!

There are so many natural wonders in this area.  Just West of Albuquerque is the Mesa, as Spanish word that means 'table'.  And that is what it looks like, a flat table top.  There is an Ice Cave and an inactive valcano just about 1 hour west of the city. 

Keep going west on I40, and go over the board of New Mexico into Arizona you can see a Meteor Crater.  Here are 2 pictures of it.  This crater was formed about 50,000 years ago!

Not to far away from the Meteor Crater is the Petrified Forest.  Right next to that is the Painted Desert.  The colors are enchangint!  Ms. Dee doesn't know if we'll have time to get there, but in the meantime, she really wanted to you all to see these beautiful pictures of it. Another thing to remember is the fossils that are in the Southwest.  There is a place called Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico and you can go and dig up your own fossils!  Isn't' that cool?

 Here is a piece of petrified wood.  It looks like wood, but is a rock!  Over many many years, the wood part of the tree was replaced with minerals that now have caused it to become petrified.  Did you know that petrified wood is considered a fossil?

 Ms. Dee said she went to the Petrified Forest once with her mom, and that her mom didn't realize that the forest wasn't like a normal forest.  She explained that the trees don't stick out of the ground, but are buried in the ground with parts and pieces above the ground.  Here mom was looking for a nice shade tree to sit under I guess.  LOL.

 This is a picture of the Petrified Forest with the Painted Desert in the background.

These pictures are of the Painted Forest.  lSo many of these pictures remind me of the Grand Canyon!  But this is small compared to that.  What do you think of the colors?  Does it look painted to you?

Here is some neat information about the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert.  If you come to see one, you should really think about seeing both!

The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic, about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All of the park's rock layers above the Chinle, except geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by wind and water. In addition to petrified logs, fossils found in the park have included Late Triassic ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and many other plants as well as fauna including giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large amphibians, and early dinosaurs. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the park's fossils since the early 20th century.