Flagstaff / Petrified Forest National Park / Dallas

Yo, it's Jazmyne. Colin had nothing to say and I'm drinking Austin brewed Grapefruit Gose (delicious) so I'm your narratorator for tonight's presentation of "So You Want to Be Park Ranger - Your First Assignment in the Forest Where the Trees are Crystalized."

So, Arizona is beautiful. Or at least, most of Arizona is beautiful. There are parts, like the town outside of the Petrified Forest, that look, a bit... sketchy. It probably didn't help that as I was driving along, I kept looking for a Forest but there was not a single tree for miles. Which you can see many miles away from you because everything is flat. However, once you turn off the highway, flash your "America the Beautiful" pass to the Park Ranger, you enter a world that as I like to call it "a land that time forgot, then got looted, then squatters moved in for a while, then it sat empty for a long time and is waiting for a good pressure wash."

At first, I was not so impressed. Then I went into the Visitor Center/Museum and I got all excited when I saw the prehistoric fossils that they had found in the park. I'm super into fossils and dinosaurs, crystals and rocks, and all that jazz. I think it has to do with the La Brea Tar Pits and all the dinosaurs they have pieced together there, which btw, is still the best tourist attraction I've ever been to. Anyways, there have been so many landscapes over this past year of traveling that I see and exclaim out loud "JURASSIC PARK!! The T-Rex would totally come ripping over that hill right there!" Lush, jungle-y, a canyon made for a Lion King stampede to run through, etc. The Petrified Forest though was what those scenes would look like after the meteor hit the planet and it just finished thawing out again after the Ice Age. But it was pretty. And odd. And stark. And covered in crystalized trees. And dry. And strong. And rugged. And some how, really charming. It's got to be at the top of the "National Parks You've Never Heard Of But Should Really Check Out" list.

Told ya, no trees in sight. Apparently this used to be a wetland, with big scary Dinosaur Crocodiles.

Colin speaking: I like this picture ^^^

The Painted Desert. Kinda like reading tree wrinkles, or "rings" as the Scientists call them.

I'm all about a vintage postcard.

Blue skies for days.

I was walking with the (dinosaur) ghost. I said Whooo! Please don't eat me!

Many a 90's sweater was designed after this mountain.

Colin vs. The Wind. He won but his hair lost.

Colin speaking: It was really fucking windy.

Classic.

Welcome to Texas, where everyone drives tractors.