Again we got on the road a little earlier than anticipated this morning. We were excited that Hubble Trading Post opened at 8 am, so we could get down there and get an early start on the day. After packing up and making the forty five minute drive to the trading post it was only quarter after eight. Unfortunately, though the trading post opened at eight o’clock, the Visitor Center didn’t open until nine. Still, we walked the grounds and saw all the outdoor sites. The boys really enjoyed feeding a horse that was anxious for grass. When we’d finally taken the time to see the grounds it was a few minutes before nine. We went in the trading post and looked around. The cool thing is that the trading post, which was built in the 1860s has been continuously run as a trading post since then. The store is made of logs and adobe and the floor creaks and cracks with every step you take. You feel like you’re in a scene from Little House on the Prairie. We all bought a candy stick, and we picked up a Junior Ranger patch for the boys. Then Dad bought a drink called Big Red. It was really red cream soda, but Mark and Dax thought it was the greatest thing ever. Of course, Seth found it “too spicy” because of the carbonation.
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| One of our favorite things to see is old farm equipment. |
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| Mom was the wise one who found the grass this horse liked to eat. |
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| Mark was really brave about feeding the horse. |
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| Dad was also brave! |
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| Seth warmed up and fed the horse, too. |
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Dax did not like feeding the horses. He kept throwing the grass at the horse instead.
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| We really enjoyed Hubbel Trading Post. |
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Finally at about quarter after nine the ranger arrived. She was really nice and let us look through the house where the Hubbells lived. The boys worked on their Junior Ranger badges, which included a crossword puzzle composed entirely of numbers. They also enjoyed running their own trading post with the cash register in the Visitor Center. By the time we left, Hubbell Trading Post was one of the best stops on the trip!
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| Seth and Dax laughed and played trading post for a long time. |
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| They finally convinced Mark to buy some things. |
We continued the drive south down to Petrified Forest National Park. This is the boys 18th National Park (in the US), and they are really excited for Grand Canyon later this trip. We started on the north end of the park, and frankly we weren't too impressed. There was a nice overlook for the Painted Desert, and then 5 more overlooks for the Painted Desert. We did a short hike along the rim of the Painted Desert as well. Then we headed south. As we crossed I-40, there was a pretty cool stop on the old Route 66 road. A 1932 Studebaker, which was entirely rusted out sat on the side of the road. The boys liked looking at it and talking about the movie Cars, which takes place on Route 66.
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| We love collecting new National Parks. |
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| The Painted Desert was pretty cool. |
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| The boys were impressed with all the colors. |
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| Not sure what Mark is doing here.... |
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| Mom always ends up wearing Seth's hat by the end of the hike. |
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| We loved seeing the old Route 66 stuff. |
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| There were ancient ruins and petroglyphs to see. |
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| The colors of the Painted Desert go on forever. |
In the south part of the park we started seeing some petrified wood. We did every overlook and every hike, and none of them totaled a full mile until we reached Blue Mesa Loop. This trail took us down into the canyon to walk among the brightly colored rocks that were peppered with petrified wood. The hike was a mile, and the wind was blowing and Mom even spotted a few flakes of snow! We lost several hats but were able to run them down, and actually, this all added to the fun of the trail. Finally, we were enjoying the park.
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| The weather was seriously crazy when we got out to hike Blue Mesa. Windy, cold, and even snow! |
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| Mom loves the purple of these hills. She also loves Dad. |
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| We had such a fun time and giggled all through the crazy wind. |
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| Mom takes a lot of pictures! |
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| Dax loved this hike! |
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| Seth was getting worn out, and Mark was a nice big brother to carry him for awhile. |
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| Dad found this really cool piece of petrified wood. |
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| Another picture of the cutest parents ever! |
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| This was just a quick pull out, but this piece of petrified wood is cool! It's a bridge! |
From there it got even better. Our next hike was a ranger hike at Jasper Forest. She showed us the tiniest flowers and had us searching the ground for little bitty shards of petrified wood. Though we'd been walking through the park for several hours, we discovered a whole new world at our feet. Then she let us wander down into Jasper valley. There was a nearly endless array of petrified wood. From tiny sparkling shards to massive logs as large as a small car, we saw more wood than one could imagine. We were fascinated with the brilliant colors. The boys ran around picking up the purplest shard they could find to show Mom, because that is her favorite color. Dad liked the ones that were dead ringers for fallen logs and actual wood. Mom just took a lot of pictures that will never possibly show how amazing Jasper Forest really is. We walked around for nearly an hour and barely even entered the valley.
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| Seth absolutely loved the ranger program where we learned about the wildflowers. |
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| He also found this gorgeous piece of petrified wood. |
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| It was the prettiest rainbow piece we saw. |
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| Jasper Forest was a lot of fun! |
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| Mark really wants to reach his arms all the way around. |
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| We loved wandering through all the huge pieces of wood. |
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| Jasper Forest was everyone's favorite hike. |
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| Seth loved the huge pieces of wood. |
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| Everyone took a picture with their favorite pieces. |
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| Because it is bad luck and against the law to take them home. |
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| Dax showed Mom so many different colors of wood. He has 5 favorite pieces pictures. |
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| Some of the logs are so large! |
Eventually we had to move on. We drove a little farther down the road to Crystal Forest. This hike took us to a set of more complete logs. We paced one out at nearly 40 yards. Many of the logs in this section looked as if they been crosscut with a chainsaw. The wood wasn't shattered like at Jasper, but you had to stay on the trail, which made it less fun to explore. Finally we left the logs behind and drove down to the Visitor Center so the boys could earn their third Junior Ranger badge of the trip.
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| Crystal Forest was another great hike in this park. |
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| Mom loves hiking with her boys. |
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| Check out that giant log behind the boys. |
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| A family picture with the beautiful clouds. |
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| We were all amazed at this huge log. |
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| Another family picture on the same trail--very rare! |
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| Mark loved the texture of this petrified wood. |
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| Seth was wearing out again! |
We drove down to Holbrook, where our hotel was and had dinner. After checking in we piled back into the car. It was getting late, but we really wanted to drive 30 miles down to Snowflake to see the temple. We made just as it was getting dark and snapped some photos for our temple books.
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| The Snowflake Temple Grounds were beautiful. |
It was late by the time we got back, but the boys were set on swimming in the pool. After a half hour of swimming and Seth sitting in the hot tub we finally got them wrangled to bed. Since we gained an hour as we left the Navajo Nation 8:30 was actually 9:30, so the boys fell asleep pretty quickly. And Petrified Forest turned out to be a pretty amazing National Park!
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| Seth mostly stayed in the hot tub. |
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| Dax jumped in 1000 times. |
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| Mark loves to swim. |
