Day 8: From Albuquerque, NM to Holbrook, AZ

2140 miles driven so far.

After all the excitement from yesterday's journey, we were expecting today's trip to be a bit more dull. And it was so for the most part of it, although an almost magical place was awaiting for us at the end of the journey...
We got on the road early in the morning as we had over 250 miles to go into yet another state: Arizona. The first part of the trip was really nothing to write home about, just miles after miles of semi-desertic plains.

We were entering Indian Nation territory, and the most notable sign of this was the proliferation of Indian Casinos and jewelry and gift shops.

 One of the geographical features of this trip was arriving at what is known as the "Continental
Divide": a point that separates rainfall making its way to either the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean.

Soon after that, we stopped for lunch at Virgie's Mexican Restaurant, a very local Mexican-Native restaurant where we had a very good beef steak and its signature dish Chico Steak, with chile sauce and cheese.
Just at the end of the trip, we reached the Petrified Forest National Park, a geological marvel that features fossilized trees and millions years old mountains showing the different mineral strata that constitutes them.
One of the first sights in this park was the "Painted Desert", small prominences from the Triassic era showing layers of different colors according to the minerals that form them.

At this point we also started to see some of the fauna in the park: lots of huge crows and... another snake!

 The following sight was even more spectacular. It's called "Blue Mesa", another series of cone-shaped formations featuring layered blues, purples and grays, created by iron, carbon, manganese and other minerals. The pictures probably don't reflect how impressive this landscape is, but we'll give it a try : )

Finally, another of the attractions was the "Crystal Fores", a landscape with lots of petrified logs that were previously buried in deeper rock layers and now uncovered by erosion of the upper ground layers. These remains of antique trees look just like fallen trees from far away, but they are now fully petrified and constituted by glassy rocks and quartz crystals.

After witnessing such breathtaking landscape, we headed to our hotel in Holbrook, in time to learn that we had changed our time zone again, as apparently Arizona does not abide to Daylight saving time in summer! Live and learn...
Time now to rest as tomorrow we have a long journey, where we'll visit the famous Monument Valley before heading to the Grand Canyon of Colorado river. But more on that tomorrow...