Painted Desert/Petrified Forest

We set off from the Grand Canyon in the morning towards the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. We stopped at 100 miles in to top off Reba's transmission fluid. As we pulled off the highway into the KOA we noted Reba was acting a little worse and decided to schedule a AAA tow to Sante Fe the following morning and schedule a Lyft or Uber through the park. Although they offered drivers, the apps never matched a driver so we finally secured a local cab to drive us through the park just before they closed it to entry for the day. He was pulled over by the Ranger for speeding once.
The Petrified Forest was created when silica enriched groundwater replaced the organic material in logs with quartz. This process had already occurred 135 million years ago when T-rex still roamed the earth. Interestingly, over 200 million years ago the area was at the same distance from the equator as present day Costa Rica, and would look much like a Costa Rican forest today if the area had not been pushed so much further north.
The Painted Desert was beautiful especially the Blue Mesa.The Chinle Formation, a group of sedimentary rocks made of easily erodible siltstone, mudstone and shale, were deposited there during the Late Triassic period. Over millions of years, wind and water erosion sculpted the landscape, exposing colorful layers.
In the morning, Reba was loaded on the truck for the 297 mile drive to Santa Fe. Thankfully, AAA premium covered most of the tow.
We arrived in Santa Fe around 2 p.m. and dropped Reba at the Rialta Doctor. Send positive vibes for an easy, fast fix. The ViKing's musical selection for this portion of the trip: Hot Dusty Roads, Buffalo Springfield

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