The Painted Desert

Illustration: The multi-colored Painted Desert,
north of Winslow, Arizona.

 East of the Grand Canyon in Arizona is a land of towering spires, amssive buttes, and fantastic rock formations-- all in vivid shades of red, yellow, blue, and purple. The Painted Desert almost seems to have been carved and colored by giant hands. In fact, wind and other natural forces created this strange and beautiful scenery.

The process began some 200 million years ago. First, layer after layer of rock formed, colored by iron oxides and other minerals. Then the forces of errosion went to work, wearing away the rock into strange shapes and revealing the many colored layers. The result is a masterful show of color and form. When the wind whips up lose sand, even the air in the desert seems colored by a pink or purple haze.

The desert stretches for some 7,500 square miles and is as harsh as it is beautiful. There is little rain, between 5-9 inches a year, and tempertures range from 105 degrees in the summer to -25 degrees in the winter. Although there are Hopi and Navajo reservations in this part of Arizona, settlements are small and scattered. But thousands of visitors come to the desert each year for a glimps of this natural masterpiece.

DID YOU KNOW....Many visitors to the Painted Desert head for Petrified Forest National Park. The ground there is littered with the trunks of ancient trees that have turned to stone.

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A Special Thanks To Groiler Books.

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