Thursday – Saturday, April 16-18, 2026
After spending a full week below the rim in the Grand Canyon we returned to Flagstaff for a night before we planned to drive over to Petrified Forest National Park and the surrounding Palavayu area to spend a couple of days before heading home. Unfortunately, things would not go quite as planned because my right eye started to hurt really bad and bother me overnight and I ended up having to go to Urgent Care on Friday morning where I found out that I had a scratched cornea and wouldn’t be able to wear my contacts for a few days. It’s not surprising based on how much blowing sand we encountered in the canyon, but I am really glad that I didn’t have any issues with my eye while we were still in the canyon because that would not have been fun!
After grabbing an early lunch and picking up some prescription eyedrops, Diane drove us to Holbrook and we got checked in to our hotel room so I could rest for the remainder of the day. I had really hoped we would be able to get out and visit some petroglyphs this afternoon, but I just wasn’t feeling well enough for that. Thankfully, I was feeling much better when we got up on Friday morning and we were able to spend the rest of the day and a few hours on Saturday morning searching for petroglyphs, plus whatever else we could find, before we started the drive back home. Unfortunately, I found out just how difficult it is to search for rock art when you can’t see very well, which was not a lot of fun. Even though we didn’t find very many new petroglyphs this time, we did come across quite a few nice potsherds! These are some photos of what we saw this time.
I’ve been searching for this panel for a few years now and was glad to finally find it this time!
Big Dotted Zoomorph
Broken Head
Horse Petroglyph
Spalling Panel
Two sheep and an interesting twisted design.
Standing on Shoulders
Jump Rope
This looks like it could have been some kind of game piece?
Petroglyphs In the Corner
Many Arms
Lichen Panel
Snakes
Big Feet Panel
I took Diane back to see the Ancient Fetish I came upon back in February.
We didn’t go anywhere difficult this time, but Diane did get to take her Passport off the pavement for the first time.
>> Potsherds & Petroglyphs from the Painted Desert Photo Gallery