Petrified Forest National Park is located in a fascinating part of Arizona, called the Painted Desert. The northern part of the park features the colorful badlands of the Painted Desert, the famous petrified logs are located in the southern part.
About 200 millions years ago, the now petrified trees grew on surrounding hills while the area of the park itself was a large swamp. Several rivers carried the fallen logs down the hills into this swamp where they were buried underneath layers of silt that contained a good portion of volcanic ashes. The silt protected the logs from air, therfore they did not rot and during the following millions of years, silicia-laden water soaked through the silt and petrified the wood by encasing the organic material with minerals.
A while later the whole area dropped in altitude and got covered with multiple layers of sediments. Once the area rose again, many of the enormous logs broke into pieces and ersosion contributed to the uncovering of the logs. Erosion is an ongoing process and will eventually uncover additional petrified wood that is buried up to 300 feet below the surface today.
Most of the logs and pieces in the park display a fascinating range of colors - black and while as well as multiple hues of yellow and red. Petrified Forest National Park is famous for the bright colors of its petrified wood compared to other locations, Some of them look like enormous gemstones and it might be tempting to collect some smaller pieces. Don't even think about it - collecting petrified wood is strictly prohibited and the park rangers are very serious about it. If you want to bring a few pieces with you, the shops inside as well as outside the park have great collections to choose from.
Overlooking the floodplain of the Puerco River, Puerco Ruin is a partially excavated rectangular pueblo of approximately 100 rooms. Evidence suggests that Puerco Pueblo was occupied twice, from A.D. 1100 to 1200 and again the the 1300s. Residents of Puerco may have been direct ancestors of the modern-day Hopi and Zuni.
The Blue Mesa badlands are made up of rock known as the Chinle Formation, which extends from Texas, across northern Arizona, and into Utah. Descending from the mesa, a 1 mile long trail loops among badland hills of bluish bentonite clay and petrified wood. Plant fossils, including delicate ferns, have been found in the sedimentary layers of Blue Mesa.
This is one of the most spectacular areas of the park known for its brightly colored petrified wood. Iron oxides give the wood its distinctive red, yellow, and orange hues; manganese oxides produce plues, purples and deep blacks, while the original carbon produces the shades of gray. Centuries of erosion washed away concealing sediment deposits to expose these remnants of Triassic woodlands.
Giant Logs features some of the largest and most colorful logs in the park. "Old Faithful", at the top of the trail, is almost ten feet wide! The trail is accessible via the Rainbow Forest Museum that contains a wonderful collection of raw as well as polished pieces of Petrified Wood.
The petrified wood in Jasper Forest was once encased in bluffs in this area. When erosional forces removed the softer rocks, the petrified wood tumbled and accumulated on the valley floor. Opposite Jasper Forest, a short road leads to agate bridge, a long complete unbroken log lying over a stream bed.
The Long Logs trail (1.5 miles) leads through one of the greatest concentrations of petrified wood at Petrified Forest. This pileup of logs suggests an ancient log jam created by prehistoric rivers. Another trail (2 mile round trip) leads to Agate House, a partially reconstructed Indian pueblo built of petrified wood.
The Painted Desert is an area of 50,000 acres of colorful mesa buttes, and badlands. Beyond the boundaries of the park, the Painted Desert runs west and north in a great arc, extending to the edges of the Grand Canyon. It forms the north side of the Little Colorado and Puerco River valleys and rises into the flat tablelands of Moenkopi Plateau and the Hopi Mesas.
Directions
The park is directly located at Interstate 40 between Holbrook and Chambers. If you want to enter from the North, the park entrance is about 25 miles east of Holbrook. If you want to enter from the South, exit I40 at Holbrook onto 77 South and then turn left onto 180 East after about 2 miles. Follow 180 for about 17 miles until you reach the south entrance of the park.
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