I haven’t spent much time driving further west than Albuquerque so when an opportunity presented itself to go on a road trip to Arizona, I jumped at the chance. A friend of mine who has family in Arizona invited folks out to his parents’ place for a ceremony that was being held for another member of his family. Driving straight from Austin to Window Rock would have been about 13-14 hours so we decided to stop for the night at Caprock Canyons State Park and get a little hiking and exploring in along the way.
Caprock Canyons State Park is well-known for its bison, but I didn’t expect to be greeted by a herd almost immediately after we entered the park. The bison are as beautiful and majestic in person as they are in pictures. Others have said it before, but it bears mentioning again: please practice caution with wildlife. Not just for your safety but for the safety of non-human animals too. It was heartbreaking to read about the bison calf that had to be put down in Yellowstone because its herd rejected it after it was “rescued” by tourists. Respect non-human animals, our relatives, and they will respect you too.
We ended being stuck on the road for about 20 minutes, waiting for the herd and its smallest calf to move across the path. It was well worth the wait to be so close to the bison and observe them without putting them or us in danger. We made it to our campsite as the sky began to get darker and change colors and set up camp for the night. I had just bought a digital DSLR camera bundle and was set on trying to experiment with night photography, but things did not work out quite the way I hoped. I tried to fiddle around with the settings and while doing so I realized that I have a lot a lot a lot to learn about my camera. That being said, I’m not giving up! My goals is to sign up for a photography class so that I can improve as a photographer and experiment with creative images. I was really into photography many many years ago and it’s time for a refresher.
The next morning when I got up for a run I was pleasantly surprised to discover that our campsite in the Honey Flat Camping Area was located right next to the Bison Herd Grazing Prairie. The path I had originally intended to take was blocked by bison so I ran in the opposite direction and got an equally beautiful view of the park and its wildlife.
We decided to fit in a hike before finishing our drive out to Arizona. There are over 90 miles of trails for hiking and biking at Caprock Canyons, giving you plenty of options depending on what you’re in the mood for. We opted for the Eagle Point Trail, a moderate two-mile hike, and wandered along the trail searching for the natural bridge listed as a point of interest. If not for my partner’s excellent sense of awareness, we would have missed the tiny horned lizard we stumbled upon along the way!
One thing that I wish I had not stumbled upon were ants. I stopped for about a minute or less to get a shot of the beautiful wildflowers coloring the landscape, and that was long enough for a little army of fire ants to wage war against my foot. The bites were as pleasant as you would imagine and I spent the rest of the day scratching the ankle area of my foot. Lesson learned. I hope you enjoy these flowers.
After we hiked a little longer, we found a small cave that we couldn’t pass by without exploring. We couldn’t tell exactly what kind of animal(s) called the cave home, but we could absolutely smell their presence.
The other animals that really stood out in the park to me were the prairie dogs. There were holes and prairie dogs almost in every direction. I think I scared this poor little guy – when I stopped to take a picture he started making rapid, high-pitched noises so I slowly backed away. Apparently prairie dogs were reintroduced to the park back in 2012 in order to restore the prairie ecosystem; the Texas State Bison Herd is actually part of the same effort. Black-tailed prairie dogs are indigenous to the Texas Panhandle but they were hunted to extinction, despite numbering in the billions across the Great Plains hundreds of years ago. Having prairie dogs in the park will help reduce the amount of non-native vegetation while simultaneously increase beneficial perennial grasses like buffalo grass. It’s great to know that our state parks are undertaking these types of efforts!
I wish I had been able to capture this bison on video because it was frolicking / bathing itself in the dirt and it was such a beautiful sight to see.
Our hike ended at this natural wall, visible from the Upper Canyon Loop Trail. From there, we returned to our campsite, had lunch, packed up the rest of our belongings, and hit the road to reach our final destination of Window Rock, AZ.
Window Rock, AZ is the capital of the Navajo Nation and sits pretty much right at the border of Arizona and New Mexico. It was an honor to visit with my friend’s family and friends and to sit in a ceremony for the first time. The work started early in the morning with setting up the tipi and ended the next day with cooking and sharing a meal together.
While we were there, we went to the market and bought blankets, jewelry and frybread, among other things. Whether in San Anto, León, Bangkok, or Window Rock, there’s something I love about markets and spending hours wandering around aimlessly, taking in the sights, sounds, flavors, and feeling of community.
We napped after the ceremony and then decided to take advantage of being in Arizona and headed to Petrified Forest National Park. According to geology.com, “Petrified wood is a fossil…that forms when plant material is buried by sediment and protected from decay due to oxygen and organisms. Then, groundwater rich in dissolved solids flows through the sediment, replacing the original plant material with silica, calcite, pyrite, or another inorganic material such as opal. The result is a fossil of the original woody material that often exhibits preserved details of the bark, wood, and cellular structures.” Some of the trace fossils in the Petrified Forest are over 200 million years old!
Petrified wood was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. I didn’t really know what to expect with respect to the landscape in this park. Petrified Forest National Park is arid, expansive, colorful, and beautiful. I was struck by both the lack of color and the extreme color. The variations in color actually represent different points in time in the creation of the Chinle Formation, which was deposited over 200 million years ago during the Late Triassic Period (approx. 227-205 million years ago). The Blue Mesa Member of the Chinle Formation can be seen in the first picture below; the Petrified Forest Member is the second.
We knew that we didn’t have a lot of time to explore so our approach was to do a lot of driving through the park as well as stop for short hikes in order to squeeze in as much as possible. We walked along the Painted Desert Rim Trail and made our way through the Puerco Pueblo where we were able to see petroglyphs.
We also descended into the badlands via the Blue Mesa Trail and trekked through ancient beasts in the Giant Log Trail.
Our adventurous afternoon soon came to an end and it was time to return to Window Rock to prepare for the journey home. We weren’t going to have the same luxury of splitting the drive in half so we had to be as well-rested as possible to make it through the 13-hour drive back to Austin. Those four days flew by fast and we loved every minute of it. The friendships that sustain us are priceless, as are the wonders of this Earth that some folks may take for granted. They’re all worth fighting for.
