Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences,
Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay
One of the few places you can drive under a National Park is I-40 in Arizona.
Below: Chinle Point looks out over the appropriately named Painted Desert. | |
This mesa is capped by a thin veneer of volcanic rock. Below: close-ups of the lava flow. |
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Blue Mesa is named for a distinctive blue-gray layer of weathered volcanic ash. | |
Left and below: views from the eastern end of Blue Mesa | |
Left and below: the north side of the loop looks out across a colorfully banded canyon. | |
Left and below: numerous logs are well exposed. | |
Agate Bridge is a log over a gully that forms a natural bridge. The concrete underneath, not so natural. Nowadays the log would simply be allowed to collapse naturally. | |
Left and below: cross-bedding in the sandstone. | |
Views from Agate Bridge | |
Petrified wood from various states. Except half of it isn't. It's schist or mylonite. | |
Dude, that is not petrified wood! That is vesicular basalt! Below: numerous logs are exposed around the visitor center. |
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Dinosaurs frequented the area. | |
Left and below: Close-ups of the wood. | |
Left: The Teepees |
Petroglyphs pecked into desert pavement
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Created 22 July 2012, Last Update 06 June 2020