Happy 100th Birthday National Park Service! Writings in the Desert

Hello and welcome to the J.Q. Rose blog! I was very ambitious earlier in the week and announced today would be the day I would share our trip to the Grand Canyon National Park to commemorate the 100th birthday of the National Park Service. Unfortunately, for many reasons, the Grand Canyon video is not ready and I don't want to put it up until I'm happy with it. Please check back next week, fingers-crossed, to join me on an armchair tour of the amazing Grand Canyon NP.

First Lady, Michelle Obama, helps to get the word out in this You Tube video--
The First Lady Celebrates the National Park Service

Writings in the Desert by J.Q. Rose

After visiting the Petrified Forest National Park, I made an astounding connection and gained insight into my writing. 

A writer’s compulsion to write is a puzzlement to most people.  Ask an author why she writes and you will most likely get the answer, “because I have to.” Ideas for stories swirl around in the writer’s brain and will not go away until the idea is fixed on paper or screen.

This drive is not a new behavior for human beings. Cave men expressed their ideas on the walls of caves. This summer my husband and I visited the Southwest region of the USA. Signs of ancestral native people who lived in this harsh environment left their drawings on rocks in the desert. I don’t mean rocks the size of a stone you can skip across the lake. These are enormous ROCKS with identifiable pictures of water birds and faces of what scientists believe symbolize the spirits the people worshiped. The drawings are called petroglyphs.

Petroglyph --Faces of spirits of the Ancestral Pueblo culture

Petroglyph--Water bird drawing in the Petrified Forest National Park

Evidence of the desire by ancient people to leave a record of their lives are scattered throughout the Petrified Forest National Park in Eastern Arizona. Visit my blog post about the Petrified Forest NP here.

Rocks, “varnished” by Mother Nature by the clay minerals and sand collected on the surface of the rock, make the perfect canvas/background for the prehistoric man to scratch out recognizable shapes and figures about their existence. The latest Ancient Puebloan drawings are believed to be from around 900 A.D. to 1100 A.D. 

The Painted Desert located in the Petrified Forest National Park

I felt strangely connected with these primitive efforts at sharing the artist/writer's ideas with others, as if the artist was reaching out across the centuries to assure me it's okay to have that drive to express my ideas through my writing. 

I wonder if any of today's e-books and print books will exist 1000 years from now for future scientists to discover!
Photos by J.Q. Rose
Originally posted on the Books We Love Insiders Blog. I'll be posting regularly on the BWL blog on the 20th of each month. You're invited to visit.

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Southwest USA: The Petrified Forest National Park

Yee-haw ya'all! We're back from our tour of the Southwest USA.

Cowboy statue in Santa Fe

I promise I won't show you every rock and amazing vista photo I took because there are about 1000 of them. Today I chose to highlight our travel through the Petrified Forest National Park in Eastern Arizona, a place Gardener Ted has wanted to see since he was in grade school. 

NOTE: Enlarge this page to 110%-125% so you can see the photos better. 

Millions of years of rain and sun and rivers have turned this ancient forest into petrified rock and trapped fossils forever in their actual form. The park is like a big candy store for paleontologists. Take a peek at some of the sights we saw.

Petrified rock

Trees fallen in the forest millions of years ago dot the park. We traveled the 28 mile road that connects the forest area to the amazing Painted Desert area. Parking lots and overlooks allow motorists to get off the road to take in the scenery and access to amazing trails for hikers to experience the beauty and adventure the park offers.

The rocky landscapes are gorgeous in this harsh and wild environment. 

I have never experienced such sights.

Petroglyphs--These drawings, thousands of years old, are found throughout the park telling the story of the people who lived here. I write about these drawings in a guest post at the Insider Books We Love Blog today. 

Solar Calendar--the Ancestral Puebloan people planted their crops when the sun shined a sliver of sunlight on the exact mark on this rock above. Amazingly accurate, the sun hit the mark at 9:15 a.m. right on time. Lucky we were there to capture it. The sliver is on the left side of the flat rock, half in shade and in sun. Squint and you may be able to see it. 

The 1932 Studebaker commemorates travel along Historic Route 66.
 This stretch of road was traveled from 1926-1958.

The Petrified Forest is the only national park that preserves a section of Route 66, the road that began in Chicago, Illinois and stretched all the way to Los Angeles, California. Known as the Mother Road, it sparked many an American's dream for a new life or for travel adventures. Gas was cheap and roadside attractions dotted the roadsides. Hence the saying, "Get your kicks on Route 66." Route 66 originally ran through my hometown in Central Illinois, so it was so much fun to trace the route that cut through many of the places we stopped on our trip.

The Painted Desert--when we came upon this, it took our breath away.

So happy you could join me on our trip through this unusual National Park. But then, each of our National Parks are unique. The National Park Service is 100 years old this year. We helped to celebrate by hitting several as we toured the Southwest. 

National Park Service logo--arrowhead

Visiting these special places in our country is a joy. And if you are 62 and a US Citizen, you can get the Senior pass to all the National Parks and Forests for a one time purchase of $10. good forever. Click here to learn how to get this valuable pass from the National Park Service.

For more on the petroglyphs related to my writing, and perhaps yours if you're a writer, visit the Books We Love Insider Blog and leave a comment, wave, or say hi. Thank you.

Photos by J.Q. Rose

Have you visited a National Park or Forest? If so, which one? What is your favorite? I'd love to hear from you.