Over 200 million years ago, during the Triassic Period, Petrified Forest National Park in currently arid central Arizona was equatorial and had a tropical climate. The much wetter environment, complete with rivers and swamps, allowed fish, amphibians, and reptiles, including dinosaurs, to flourish. It also created the conditions needed to petrify wood.
You can enter Petrified Forest National Park from either the north or the south. From the south, which is what I did, take U.S. Route 180 through Holbrook to the entrance and stop at the Rainbow Forest Museum. That’s one of the two visitor centers where you can get maps, see exhibits about the park, buy souvenirs, and use the restrooms (which are only available at the visitor centers).
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| Rainbow Forest Museum visitor center entrance |
It’s worth taking the time to look at the museum exhibits because they provide an overview of the history of Petrified Forest National Park. Besides, the replica dinosaurs are pretty cool!
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| Replica dinosaurs at Rainbow Forest Museum |
Out back, behind the visitor center, is the short Giant Logs trail. It’s a loop that’s less than half a mile long but it lets you see lots of petrified logs up close.
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| Petrified wood on Giant Logs trail |
Dead trees become petrified when they fall into water and are covered by mud, preventing the organic matter from decaying. But water containing minerals can still reach the wood, which becomes fossilized. After millions of years, weathering exposes the wood to the atmosphere and erosion slices the trees into smaller logs.
The varied colors in the petrified wood are a result of the minerals in the water that submerged the trees. Many logs look like they’ve been cut into sections but that’s not what happened. One of the minerals is quartz and the theory is that pressure on the petrified trees caused them to shear apart.
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| Logs on Crystal Forest trail |
Other minerals in the petrified wood are iron, copper, manganese, carbon, and chromium. Different amounts of minerals create the different colors. The Crystal Forest is a loop trail, three-quarters of a mile long, where you can see a petrified logs in a wide range of shapes and colors.
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| Multicolored petrified wood |
But petrified wood is not the only thing to see in Petrified Forest National Park. Another place worth stopping at is Newspaper Rock. From the parking lot, a short walk brings you to an overlook with sightseeing telescopes. Looking through them, or using a telephoto lens as I did, you can see petroglyphs on a couple of the large boulders below. According to a National Park Service brochure, most petroglyphs in the park are 600 – 1,100 years old.
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| Petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock |
Continuing on the road north, I began to see badlands. Formed in the Late Triassic Epoch, this part of Petrified Forest National Park looks very different from
the southern section. There are no huge petrified logs here, just hills
and mesas layered in green, brown, and white that are part of the geologic
Chinle Formation.
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| Badlands |
I passed the site where a rusty old car sits abandoned on Route 66,
which ran through Petrified Forest National Park. I didn’t stop for a
photo, although other people did. It reminded me of my visit to Santa Monica Pier where I saw the terminus of that highway.
The Painted Desert lies in the northern section of Petrified Forest National Park. There are several places to park and enjoy the view. You really get a sense of the vastness and emptiness of the park from these overlooks.
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| View of Painted Desert |
The Painted Desert Visitor Center at the northern entrance is larger than the southern visitor center. You can get gas here if you need to after driving the approximately 28 miles from one end of the park to the other. Exiting out of the park, you can easily connect to I-40.
I stopped to take a photo of the entrance sign as I was leaving. Even though it looks like you’re in the middle of nowhere, there were lots of other people also visiting the park when I was there.
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| Sign at northern entrance to Petrified Forest National Park |
President Theodore Roosevelt established Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906. It became a national park in 1962 and encompasses 221,390 acres. If you’re interested in geology and want to see a fascinating place unlike any other in Arizona, you’ll definitely want to visit Petrified Forest National Park.
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