Arizona Parks: Beauties Beyond Grand Canyon

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Arizona Parks: Beauties Beyond Grand Canyon

The west is dotted with national parks and state parks abound. Arizona is chock full of park systems -- one of the most populated in the U.S. (aside from Utah and California). Tourists will find that Arizona is a different variety, with plants and animals that have unique adaptation to constant drought-like conditions. The extremes of wildlife and the barren beauty make these extremes reason enough for a national park preserve area. This article will go over a few places that slip under many vacationing radars; they're often overshadowed by Arizona's Flagship park -- The Grand Canyon.

Painted Rocks

Let's take Painted Desert for instance. This is the badland area of Arizona -- badlands, meaning that the arid ground has been eroded by wind and water from ancient times past until present. The strata of soil and rock show bare, like the earth's bones lay strewn in the sun with limbs seemingly sawed through in places leaving them glowing ruddy with shades of vermillion -- menacing and almost out of place.

This park is just a little further down from Grand Canyon -- still in Northern Arizona and among the Navajo Nation. It covers an expanse of land, everything from just southeast from the Grand Canyon to the Petrified Forest National park, roughly 7500 square miles. This is a colorful display of miles and miles of buttes and hills with Neapolitan-like rock strata showing lines of beige, white, brick red and blood red colors. The soil and land is the remnant landscape of an ancient Triassic time, where the organic material has long decayed yet left its mark within the soil.

The highlight within the Painted Desert area is the Petrified Forest national park. It's within the Painted Desert region and it displays a wonderment of Petrified rock and fossilized plant and animal material. An ancient coniferous forest that had previously existed, in what was once a much more lush and moist place, left fallen wood of extinct trees that later became petrified over the years.

There is a great deal of dinosaur fossils that pique the interests of the public and field of archaeology alike as well. Vertebrate animals are found on a consistent basis by both amateurs and pros. Triassic animals like the aetosaur and the phytosaur were found with nearly complete skeletal structures.

This is a lesser known area in Arizona that is often left of the list. Where most people are spending time golfing and spending leisure time in Arizona resorts, its places like this that the more adventuresome vacationers seek out.

About the Author

Scottsdale Luxury Suites (http://www.luxurysuites.com) provides a well put together menu of Arizona resorts and condo rentals. Not only do they have rooms for private vacationing parties, but they have options for corporate housing and extended stays. The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.

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