Anyway, this shows some petrified logs off in the distance, and simultaneously captures the feeling of the Petrified Forest park - it's a long and lonely desert, hot and baked, covered by scrabbly bushes that won't give up, still holding the large pieces of petrified rock that haven't yet been carried away. Notably, you don't see small pieces of petrified rock in the park. Only enormous logs.
The woman in the Visitor Center said that the park only controls, or owns, 10% of the petrified rock deposits. The neighbors who sell small chunks for hundreds of dollars per chunk may only have mineral rights. Feels like an illicit, tawdry trade to me. I don't want to pay to take the rock away from its home, away from where it belongs. For what purpose? You put it on a ledge, and dust it?
"...with beauty all around me, I walk ..." -- Navajo Night Chant
Listen.
Smell the pungent juniper.
Feel the gentle power of beauty.
Ancient Black Rock hunches on the distant horizon.
A dark cloud above means rain will soon be upon us.
The awesome monolith at your feet is Tse Na-ashjeeii -- Spider Rock. Holy Spider Woman is an important deity in Navajo mythology. It was she who taught the People how to weave.
There is purity and strength here.
And places sacred to the People.
Places strong in the oneness of earth and sky and of all things.
"I am indeed its child.
Absolutely I am earth's child."
Navajo Song of the Earth