One of the many petrified logs you can find in Petrified Forest National Park

Meteor Crater was actually just the first of two natural wonders we planned to see on Wednesday. The second one, located about 1 hour further down I-40, was Petrified Forest National Park. We arrived at Meteor Crater around 1:30pm and our 1 hour walking tour of the crater rim was at 2:15pm so we didn’t get back to the car and on our way to Petrified Forest until close to 4pm. That meant we wouldn’t get to the park until 5pm, and according to our AAA book that’s when it closed. But it was on our way and we figured there was always a chance they’d let us in anyway. And it’s a good thing we did because it turned out they didn’t close till 6pm and even then they’d let you drive through. “We just ask that you don’t stop and get out of the car after 6pm” the park ranger said as we paid our $10 per car entrance fee and got a map of the area.

Weird rocks, coloured sand and ancient cultures

Three logs from the same tree in Petrified Forest

The National Park actually showcases two natural wonders, The Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert, and is also an archaeological site. Petrified Forest is a huge area that used to be a flood plain banked by tall conifers. When the trees fell they were quickly covered in silt, mud and volcanic ash and sunk into the soft soil where the lack of oxygen prevented them from rotting. (If you’ve ever seen one of the bog men of ancient Europe you’ve already seen the result of this process – natural mummification.) But at the Arizona mud plains things went a little different: Over centuries silica-laden ground water saturated the buried logs and slowly replaced the wood itself with silica deposits. The silica then slowly crystalized binding iron, carbon, manganese, cobalt and chromium with it to create stunning colourful patterns in the shape of the original wood. The result of this process can be seen today: Giant felled tree trunks made of solid crystal.

In their natural state the petrified logs look so much like regular logs it’s hard to understand that they’re not. Driving past them it just looks like a woodsman came out onto the plains and took down the few remaining trees cutting them into meter long pieces. Its only when you get up close that you notice the trunks are actually coloured rock. What’s cool about it is that the petrification process preserved all the aspects of the tree perfectly so looking at a cross section you can clearly make out the bark, cracks, knots and even year rings. This is even easier to see if you go to the visitors’ centre or one of the many places that sell cut and polished petrified wood.

One of the many mounds in the Painted Desert

Painted Desert is the name of the sandy hills surrounding the Petrified Forest. It’s actually the same place and you see both at the same time. The desert is unusual because the sandy dunes are comprised of layers of multi-coloured sands in strata – much like a layered cake. Looking at the huge hills it appears that someone came through with a set of paint brushes and created long horizontal lines throughout the area. The colours change from hill to hill and are quite spectacular. We were there at sundown and the low light played beautifully with the sands though I’m sure if we’d come earlier we would have gotten even more out of it.

As for archaeology, the area is home to everything from dinosaur remains to ancient petroglyphs (rock carvings) to ruins of pueblo Indian dwellings. In short there’s a lot to see and if you go you should estimate at least 2-3 hours during daylight. We had about 50 minutes in fading light and that was not enough. I would have liked to stay for a day though the girls would probably have enjoyed about 2 hours of it before gagging me and putting me in the trunk.

A True American Attraction

Petrified Forest National Park is what I would call a True American Attraction. By that I mean it’s a place you drive through and observe from your vehicle. The only places you can get out are the Visitor’s Centre and Museum at by the south entrance and the designated areas with parking and paved walkways. The drive is several kilometers long and can be done in about 45 minutes if you don’t stop at all. Which honestly would be stupid because you don’t really get to experience the wonder of the place without getting out. We only had an hour and didn’t get to take it all in which is regrettable – even with the restrictions there is a lot to see.

Personally I find this type of park layout to be quite annoying and it really takes away from the experience; by being confined to designated areas that were obviously created to keep people and curious fingers away from all the cool stuff you don’t get up close and personal with the things you are there to see and you don’t really get the full experience. For the Painted Desert part of the park this is just fine – the stratified sands and rocks are best viewed from afar anyway. But when it comes to the petrified wood it really detracts from the experience in the same way that observing the building techniques of ants would be if you had to stand 5 meters away from their hill.

It’s pretty obvious why the restrictions are in place: If people were allowed to roam freely and pick at whatever they thought interesting, the delicate stratified sand hills would quickly be ruined what little remains of the petrified wood would be broken or taken away. I say little because judging from how few trunks you find along the road and the number of stores outside the park that are selling petrified wood in all shapes and sizes (one advertised dinner table tops of the stuff) I’d say the majority of the best trunks are long gone and what remains are just discards. Even so there are plenty of beautiful trunks to see including the Agate Bridge (pictured) so this in itself is not a reason to ditch the park.

If you want some wood made of stone, buy it!

Even up close the petrified wood looks freakishly real

Not surprisingly it’s illegal to step on or play with the petrified wood in the park and removal of the precious rock is absolutely not allowed. At the two ends of the trail there are checkpoints and the park rangers reserve the right to do complete vehicle and cavity searches looking for any stones you may have lifted (ok, I may have exaggerated a bit on the whole “cavity search” part but seriously, they are strict about this stuff). It doesn’t really matter though: If you want a piece of petrified wood for yourself you are better off buying it at one of the many stores that sell it on the roads to and from the park: Not only do they have better samples but they are properly handled and processed to bring out the true beauty of this natural wonder. We of course did not have time to go to any of them or buy any petrified wood which is a big bummer. I’d love to have taken a big chunk home with me.

Seriously, geology is just too fascinating.

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