Painted Desert

After our house sit in Albuquerque ended, I dropped E off at the airport to fly home for a wedding and I started the drive west across Arizona. My first stop was an afternoon visit at the painted desert.

This view spot is not far from I-40 and easy to access. Although, with the lengthening shadows and the sketchy upkeep on the facilities (a covered picnic table in some disrepair) it seemed to be a bit uncertain. But all was fine and I got some fun photos.

It is interesting how the rocks have eroded and left the horizontal stripes. The flatter areas appear to be covered with grasses gone brown with the season and glowing gold in the evening sun.

The play of shadows from the low sun angle makes lots of shapes and accentuates the cracks in the rocks.

Wikipedia tells us that

The Painted Desert was named by a Spanish expedition under Francisco Vázquez de Coronado during his 1540 quest to find the Seven Cities of Cibola. He located these some 40 miles (60 km) east of Petrified Forest National Park. Finding the cities were not made of gold, Coronado sent an expedition to find the Colorado River to gain supplies. Passing through the wonderland of colors, they named the area El Desierto Pintado ("The Painted Desert").^[3]