The Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert, and the Pow-wows and Rodeos of the Navajo Nation Fair – late August to early Sept. 2007

The Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert, and the Pow-wows and Rodeos of the Navajo Nation Fair

The 28-mile long road that cut through the Petrified Forest National Park required an entrance fee, and since we had a National Parks pass that could accommodate up to four people, we asked Nathan and Lynn if they wanted to join us. Nathan was happy for the chance to go, and so we all drove together in his pick-up.

The park was stunningly beautiful. The petrified trees, themselves, are not actually forests of trees frozen in time, but rather, a bunch of horizontal, fossilized logs scattered over a vast area. The broken logs and pieces of wood are really impressive, in patterns and blends of yellow, red, black, blue, brown, white, and pink.

The petrified trees lived 225 million years ago, even before the dinosaurs. When the trees fell, they were washed into nearby floodplains by streams, and then buried by a mix of silt, mud, and volcanic ash. The sediment cut off oxygen, thereby slowing the logs’ decay. Silica-laden groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood with silica deposits. The silica eventually crystallized into quartz, and the logs were preserved as petrified wood. As the continents changed position, the climate changed, and the former tropical environment turned into today’s grassland. We even saw the complete fossil remains of a small dinosaur at the park’s museum!

The colorful mountains and rocky formations of the Painted Desert, which formed the backdrop to the Petrified Forest, stood out in stunning shades of mauve, pink, red, orange, blue, and mint green that changed hues with the position of the sun. Hundreds of petroglyphs were clearly evidenced around the park and the overlooks provided gorgeous vistas.

We biked from the Petrified Forest along I40, skirting the Painted Desert and bordering the Navajo Reservation. We saw prairie dogs in the hundreds and eventually turned north from I40 onto a road the cut through wild countryside that showed off canyons and red and yellow wildflowers. We arrived in Window Rock, the capital of the Navajo Nation, expecting to find a campground (we had called the Department of Parks and Recreation two weeks before), but found that we were misinformed. The nearest campground was 25 miles away, and that was too far to bike in order to be in Window Rock for the Navajo Nation Fair, which was to start the next day. Yet we had done a large detour in order to be there for the fair. What to do?

We were told to ask at one of the local churches or schools, and found Jorge and Rhiana at the Western Ministries on the New Mexico side of town, who said we could camp in their front yard for the week. We were only a few miles from the center of town and the fairgrounds. They were hospitable and it was the perfect situation for us.

The annual Navajo Nation Fair is one of the world’s largest Native American events and features traditional song and dance displays and competitions, intertribal pow-wows, a Miss Navajo pageant, a baby contest, a parade, fry bread contests, concerts, an Indian rodeo and horse racing, and a barbecue with Navajo food. It was awesome, and the three days that we attended were really amazing. The people were friendly and the event colorful and fun. I was glad to have made the detour.

My favorite events were the pow-wow and night performance. Both involve traditional dances, but the pow-wow was a competition and the night performance was just a performance of traditional dances performed by different tribes, coming from as far away as Mexico City. The dancers wore extremely elaborate and magnificent costumes made of leather and other material and decorated with hundreds of large feathers. Many of them were decorated in every color of the rainbow, even fluorescents! The costumes were decorated with beads and many had wings. The participants wore beaded or leather moccasins or laced calf-high boots. The older men carried sticks with eagles’ talons or animal claws. Groups of musicians sat in circles beating on drums and chanting or singing. The dancers moved together in circles or swirled around. It was a real feast for the eyes and ears.

There were arts and crafts pavilions, Navajo food (such as Navajo burgers, which are burgers on fry bread), handicrafts and tons of turquoise jewellery for sale, and even a huge fairground with amusement rides. The Miss Navajo contest was a serious one, and contestants had to be able to speak Navajo, be familiar with Navajo history and culture and songs, and even be able to butcher a lamb. We had considered attending the Butchering Day contest out of curiosity, but we spent that day at the doctor’s house across town, sick with strep throat.

We gave an assembly at the Western Ministries school to the K-8 age students, who were excited to hear about our trip and talk to us. Our bikes, both with and without the saddlebags, were a big hit.

Back to Pennsylvania
Our plan was to head back west towards the Grand Canyon after the Fair, making a loop through the Navajo Reservation. But during our week in Window Rock, we found out that Grammy had passed away, and so we made plans to head back to Pennsylvania for her memorial service in mid-September.

Getting back to Philadelphia was no easy matter with two bicycles and 13 saddlebags. We knew it would be very difficult to fit everything on a bus, so we first opted to try hitch-hiking. It’s legal in Arizona, but we still had no luck. Few people had open pick-ups that would fit the bikes, and the ones that did were only going as far as the next town, and not as far as Flagstaff or Phoenix, where we could get a shuttle to the airport. So after a miserable day under the sun with no luck, we headed to the Greyhound station outside of town. The initial buses that came didn’t even have any seats available, let alone enough room for all our baggage!

We slept overnight at the Greyhound bus station, in order to wait out each bus that came in the hopes that there might eventually be enough room. Finally we found one that had the smallest amount of hope. It was pretty well packed, and it didn’t look as if the bikes would fit, but the driver relented after telling us he had a schedule to keep, and after shifting things around and taking the wheels off our bikes, we finally managed to squeeze them in after a half-hour’s hard work on Stephane’s part. We were finally on our way to Phoenix, where we would catch a plane to Philadelphia.

We stayed with Leila, whom we had met in Syria three years earlier. We were going to meet up with her after the Fair, and once our plans changed, she told us to come to her house so that we would have a place to leave our bags and bikes while we were in Philadelphia. It gave us peace of mind to know everything was stored safely while we were gone. Thanks Leila!