Petrified Wood
And petrified people?
Wildfires are good and bad. When naturally occurring they are a part of the natural plan, a way for the forest to renew. Pine cones will explode and seeds will disperse during a fire, which allows new trees to grow. The process is called succession, and to get from complete devastation to full grown old growth forest you’re looking at between 100-150 years. Naturally occurring wildfires can ignite from the sun’s heat or start from lightning strikes.
Unfortunately, most wildfires start because of human neglect - unattended campfires, cigarette butts thrown from a car window, burning garbage on a windy day, etc. Careless people have started massive fires that destroyed not only property but also displaced millions of native animals and destroyed countless plant life. And some of the ways wildfires have been started is absolutely insane. How about the one where the female park Ranger (yes, park Ranger) was upset her boyfriend just broke up with her, so she burned some letters from him in a national forest. That started the Hayman Fire1, one of the largest and most devastating Colorado history.
Today when we left Page, Arizona, we had to take a detour because of a wildfire that just broke out north of Flagstaff. We could see the haze from the fire as we drove along Indian Nation back roads. Along the way, we got lunch from a lady in her truck selling pork and green chile tamales for $2 each. Delicious!2
Petrified Forest National Park is unique and interesting. The scenery is fabulous. There’s hiking here, and you can walk among the petrified wood and touch it. The drive through the park is about 26 miles with 12 stops along the way.
Tonight we’re staying at the historic Hotel El Rancho. First impressions…we are in the movie “Cocoon”. Everyone we see is at least 5 years into collecting social security, all have that, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” fob around their necks, and have been a member of AARP for a good 20 years. But as always we are making the best of it, we found the bar. 3
Update on the car… not so good. Top speed we can do on I-40 is 60 mph. Faster than that and the car feels like it’s going to bounce off the road. This section of the interstate in Arizona is rutted and horrible, not helping this disaster. I’m no mechanic but this beast is in desperate need of an alignment. Now I wonder why??? Maybe once we cross over into New Mexico the road will be better.
Citations:
https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2021/12/explainer-how-wildfires-start-and-spread/
Read about the Hayman fire. https://www.planning.org/research/postdisaster/casestudies/haymanfire.htm
If you read yesterday’s post which included my food disasters, you may think this recommendation is crap. But Maria also had a tamale and she approved.
Don’t get me wrong, I love old people. I’ll be there one of these days
Sounds like a fun crowd at El Rancho lol