4th of July Roadtrip

I used the first few days in Arizona to overcome my jetlag and get used to the climate. The time difference from New Zealand is nothing less than -19 hours which makes up to +5 hours. Nevertheless the climates are just as opposite as they could be. New Zealand had a maximum temperature of 5°C during daytime with over 90% humidity every day while Arizona with its desert currently gets up to 40-45°C every day with very low humidity if at all.

For the 4th of July weekend we had a roadtrip going northeast planned as everybody else drove west to California. We didn't know how far we would drive yet, but Caroline and John took me to the Petrified Forest. 


 In these special trees the organic material was naturally replaced by quartz crystals in a process that takes millions of years.

 While I was busy working on my first Junior Ranger booklet, John saw this ranger on her horse outside and took Caroline and I to get a photo and pet the horse. Quater Horse mare Hickory almost fell asleep while enjoying my scratches!


The landscapes in the whole National Park are pretty unique. It almost looks like this is from another planet...
 After we left Petrified Forest we tried to find some horses standing by the fences on our way to Chinle where we stayed for the night.
Shortly before Chinle we found not only one but two wild horse herds on both sides of the street. Unfortunately all the horses we saw earlier were far out of reach of my telephoto lens.
 The red roan stallion's herd ran away as Caroline and I came closer to the fence.
 This nearly majestic appearing stallion belonged to a herd of only stallions. But one didn't quite fit in visually. One may question why a herd of 4 stallions has got a tiny mule foal? No one knows. But the little one is cute with its long ears for sure.
The blue roan might be the lead stallion by looking at the massive scars on his whole body.

After checking in to our motel we drove down to Canyon de Chelly to catch the sunset.


Though being very tired after the day, and I am not used to driving this much (318 miles/619km) we decided to try to get some photos of the milky way in Canyon de Chelly. The surroundings were brighter than we expected, and a lot of fireworks brightened up the sky but John and I still got a few shots and some even include shooting stars!
 2nd,3rd,4th photo by John Wise

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