Our first Painted Desert overlook
Some badlands morphology
...cracked earth, too.
Patterned ground close-up (this was a pretty weird texture...the mud-crack 'tiles' moved as single units)
Weird-looking gully
Who's eating the Chinle formation?
Bizarrrrrrrre
This one has crossbeds
The channel bed we explored
From the Newspaper Rock Formation
A rubble pile of Newspaper. Rock.
We spent a while examining this outcrop
Layers of sand- and mud-stone
Catherine examines some petrified pond plant (the snaky thing in the outcrop)
Amanda explains something about minerology
Check out the (1) dip angle (2) crossbeds and (3) alternating episodes of deposition
Here's my first chunk of petrified wood!
Chert. That is, a piece of petrified wood.
More wood! Very small rocks!
Eldar goes up to a raven to prove that it's not as big as it looks.
I think he only made it look even bigger
Some sandstone sticking out of the Chinle
THAT ROCK IS EATING A LOG
In the Crystal Forest area of the park
There are a couple petrified logs eroding out of the side of this hill. They'll break off in chunks as the hill works back.
Looks like wood!
Park Service Geologist Bill Parker points out “clinky wood” (it still has some cell structure and makes a “clink” noise when you kick it)
Big logs
That's a lot of chert.
I love this one
Thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk
Andrew checks out the log
This one REALLY looked like wood
Big knot
Mel gets up close and personal with a giant tree
Definitelt used to be a forest here.
An overlook near Blue Mesa
Drainage features
Mike heads off to take a photo
You show 'em, Catherine!
The other side of the cliff looks wide-open to me...
Streambed mosaic
Painted desert mosaic
Mosaic along the road where we parked the cars
Overlook mosaic
Badlands bridge mosaic
