Petrified Forest National Park

March 27 - 29/2015  Weather 78-80  low 44  - in Holbrook, Arizona.  Elevation 5,082 feet.  We have stopped here for a couple of nights so we can ride out and see the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert.

Painted Desert

Our first year out in the motor home we drove by this area in the spring and thought if we ever came by again we should stop; especially now while we still have an annual National Park pass.... We are so glad we did.   The national park does not have any camping but we found a close spot in Holbrook at the Petrified Forest/KOA. 

Petrified Forest National Park - Blue Mesa

The Petrified Forest is known for its colourful fossils, especially fallen trees (9 different species) that lived in the Late Triassic period, about 225 million years ago. Yes 225 million years..... Wow.  The pieces of logs are beautiful - they look like gem stones.  All spectrum's of the rainbow.

The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name.  

Logs are laying all throughout the park

some very large trunks laying in tact

Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the park's fossils in more than 600 archaeological sites. In the Visitor's Center you can see a giant crocodile-like reptile and a large salamander-like amphibian that roamed the forest then.  They really give you a "Jurassic park" kind of scariness.   Even the skeletons look nasty!  Much of the park is wilderness and the Ranger's are protecting the park to the best of their ability; however theft of petrified wood remains a problem in the 21st century.