petrified wood

Southern Utah has always been one of my favorite places. I love the remoteness. I love the small towns. I love the dark skies. I love the rocks. I love camping on the sandstone and I'm not sure there's another place this remote where we could park a 5th wheel trailer on that sandstone.

I have a special spot in my heart for Hanksville, which is one of those wonderful little small towns. When I placed my first online order for jewelry supplies, it was sent to the post office in Hanksville. (That's another story... getting shipments when we were moving at least every two weeks.) So it wasn't surprising that Hanksville had a nice surprise waiting for us this year. Behind the little grocery store, this guy was polishing two big chunks  of rock. He was delighted when one of our party walked into his yard to see what he was doing.

This piece of petrified wood weighs over 2200 pounds and my new friend from Hanksville is polishing it as he did the other half. Both will live in the lobby of the Manhatten Waldorf Astoria. We were in awe as he pointed out all the amazing inclusions and patterns and colors. Then... he offered to take us hunting for petrified wood!

We met him the next morning and this is what we saw and found. OMG. Not only was there gobs of wood to be found, but we drove past the Mars Desert Research Station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Desert_Research_Station) complete with astronauts in space suites.

It truly is an alien landscape. We all loved it, even the dog.

I found a knot with wonderful bark on the back including some crystals. My Hanksville buddy polished it for me!

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of it prior to the polishing. The black part had compression circles on the surface that could only have happened by the chipping action of an Ancient hand. It is so much more beautiful than my camera could capture.

Yay Hanksville. We will be back.