A little more about New Mexico:

I'd like to talk about the natural beauty of the area that we were in. New Mexico is basically a flat arid landscape dotted with huge jutting mountains and rock formations. It really is dichotomous. Here's an example of the area right outside of Gallup called "Church Rock". In the foreground, where the girls are, you can see the dust bowl that is the majority of Church Rock. Then in the background are these giant craning mountains. I believe in this picture you can actually see the church rock in the background on the far left.

Those mountains were breathtaking. Completely different than the mountains out west, which I remember as being very sharp. These mountains aren't as high, but much smoother. The evidence of age and wear are evident every time you look at one. What is really interesting though are the colors. Each mound has layers of color throughout it, some have alternating shades of red, while others really vary from layer to layer. The closer you get to the painted desert the more intense the shifts.

Which leads me up to our trip out to the painted desert in Arizona. While I won't take anything away from New Mexico and it's rock formations, which were genuinely awe inspiring, I could not have imagined the stark change in the painted desert.

As soon as we arrived we saw remnants of petrified trees littered along the road. The picture to the right isn't actually any of the smaller chunks of tree that we saw. It is a full on fallen petrified tree, this view is of the root system and the majority of the trunk trailing off in the distance. Needless to say, I was flabbergasted by the enormity of it. The really cool thing was that the process that had transformed these trees left traces of different minerals in the form of color in the trees.

The trees were normally mixes of muted reds, browns and oranges. Although sometimes they looked like giant pieces of white quartz and could carry just about any color. In fact, while my group was off looking at something my wanderlust got the better of me and I decided to go running to the bottom of the valley. You can spot part of the trail in the bottom right hand of this picture. I had almost gotten there when Jennie shouted to let me know the bus was leaving. I assure you the run up was harder than the run down. Did I mention that Billy the Kid hid in those valleys?

So, the next pictures you are about to see are the only ones taken by any member of Euharlee Baptist Church.

At the top of the trail was a sign that informed me that I was entering the "Black Forest" section of the Petrified Forest. I immediately spotted what I would have walked past any other time and snapped a picture of this.

Those little black rocks are actually dark black hunks of petrified wood. See what happens when you take the time to go places that others won't go just because of a sign that says "Warning: Rattle Snakes"?

Well, the last picture is really my pride and joy. I felt like I got to have a moment with nature down in this valley, possibly surrounded by venomous snakes. I saw that nature absolutely did portray God's invisible attributes, I stood in front of a tree and just marveled at it. I marveled and remembered that God created it. The creator is Himself so much more magnificent than His creation that when Moses asked to see God's full glory it nearly killed him. I really felt the weight of how little I fear and am awe struck by Jehovah.

There it is. My tree. I'm the only person in Euharlee Georgia that saw that tree. I'm the only one who can wonder how long it took for it to begin to unravel and how long it has been unraveling.

It's almost just a husk of a tree in places. You can see where it's peeling off from itself. It's pretty fantastic, surrounded by all that new growth. I'm really glad I got to see that tree, it's got layers, depth.