Visit Petrified Forest National Park

Given its name'"Petrified Forest National Park'"of course you would expect to find one of the world's largest concentrations of wood that has turned to stone, but did you know that this northeastern Arizona park offers much more-- ancient petroglyphs, pueblo ruins, dinosaur fossils, a national historic landmark, colorfully striated rock formations-- and it is the only national park to protect a part of historic Route 66! Whew! So as not to miss any highlights, pick up a map at the Painted Desert Visitor Center and watch the 20-minute orientation movie. Then take advantage of the park's plentiful pull-offs and designated scenic stops.

Flanking the 28-mile paved park road is arid desert scenery. What's hard to believe is that during the Triassic Period 225 million years ago, Petrified Forest National Park was once a floodplain. 200-foot tall conifer trees grew along the banks of many streams and giant amphibians, small dinosaurs, and lush ferns thrived here. Slowly but surely that tropical environment changed, but luckily much of the plant and animal life was fossilized during the process. As the stately trees fell into the swamplands, they were covered by volcanic mud. As the logs decomposed, chemical reactions occurred and tiny quartz crystals formed, encasing the wood and turning the trees to stone. Hundreds of feet of sediment continued to bury the conifers, with further preserved them. Thanks to millions of years of erosion and changes in the earth's pressure, the logs once again saw the light of day, but in a completely different form--petrified wood.

Don't miss the park's Puerco Pueblo ruins and Newspaper Rock where you'll see evidence of the Indians who lived in the area as early as 1100 A.D. It is thought that Puerco Pueblo may have been home to about 200 people and contained over 100 rooms. The petroglyphs (rock carvings) are as mysterious as they are well preserved-- but what do they mean? Are they calendars, depictions of daily life, or merely decorative? Maybe a form of ancient graffiti? No one knows for sure.

Crystal Forest and the Long Logs Trail are the best and largest concentrations of petrified wood in the park. The petrification process preserved each tree a little differently, depending on the environmental conditions when it fell, so no two pieces are alike. Some of the logs look so real you'd think they were only recently cut down-- the wood grain has been preserved in detail and the pieces are as symmetrical and sharp as those made by a saw blade. Other logs barely resemble wood at all, especially the prettier pieces. Some of the colors are so amazing you'd swear the logs were man-made and had never been a living tree. The rainbow effects come from traces of iron, manganese, carbon and chromium during petrification.

If you want to take home a little petrified wood as a souvenir, be sure to buy it at a gift shop. Removal of petrified wood (or any natural or cultural object) is strictly prohibited and punishable by federal law.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Petrified Forest National Park Visitor Information
(928) 524-6228 http://www.nps.gov/pefo