The Petrified Forest

Sunday, July 28

Here in Winslow we’re staying at a Quality Inn.  It’s a typical budget hotel where the price includes a free breakfast.  Our expectations of the food were not very high but since we intended to get an early start it was the logical choice.  The offerings included eggs, sausages, yogurt, pancakes, oatmeal and much more.  It was surprisingly delicious.  It’s nice to get a good surprise every now and then.

After breakfast we headed East for almost an hour until we reached the Petrified Forest.  The park is absolutely huge and includes a large part of the painted desert.  Our visit gave us the opportunity to check off another National Park from our list; this will bring our total in the United States to 16.  We only have 42 more to go!

Of the two entrances, one off Route 40 and one off Route 180, we chose the one off Route 40.  The visitor center has a film about the park showing on a continuous loop and the attendant gave us a free map and some very useful information about the visit.  Cost to enter is based on the type of vehicle you’re driving.  For a standard car like ours it cost $20.00.

The 28 mile road that crosses the 108,000 acre park could be driven in 45 minutes but we stopped at literally every vista point and point of interest, read every sign and even walked part of a few trails.  We spent about five hours there.  The temperature was only in the 90s but the sun was very hot.  Thank heavens for the cool breeze.

The northern end of the park is mainly about the painted desert.  It’s a vast area that was formed through sediment layering and volcanic action.  It was easy to see many layers of rock as they all had distinct colors including red, blue, green, purple and orange.

 

(Painted Desert)

As we crossed Route 40 towards the south end of the park we ate some snacks that we had brought along from Vegas (along with a case of water).  The next several stops included examples of petroglyphs created by the native peoples dating from over 1,000 years earlier.  One of them was situated such that it would be illuminated on the solstice.  Another area contained a large number of glyphs spread across several huge boulders.  They were fascinating to see.

(Petroglyphs of Newspaper Rock)

(The pictures aren’t first rate as we had to use our phones.  I sent my camera out for a badly needed refurbishment and because it needed so many replacement parts the repair took longer than expected.  It should be waiting for us in Las Vegas when we get back 😖).

Further to the south we encountered what had once been huge forests of trees that were now petrified into stone.  Most of the trees had broken in such a way that they looked like they had been chopped down – but they weren’t.  When these trees were alive the part of Pangea that became Arizona was just a few degrees north of the equator.  These were trees from a tropical rainforest and would never have grown in Arizona today; some of these species are now extinct.  By the time the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, over 135 million years later, the continents had formed and the trees had turned to stone.  The petrified wood has the appearance and texture of wood but the hardness of stone (it is actually harder than granite).  It’s fascinating to see.  Examples of petrified wood can be found all over the world but this park is the largest field ever found.

(The Petrified Logs of Crystal Forest)

The park is definitely worthy of an excursion.  Just make sure to go in a more temperate time of year so you can enjoy some of the hikes that are afforded.