After a short four-hour drive, we arrived at the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest of Arizona. What a natural wonder to behold. It is believed that millions of years ago this area was a tree lined bank of a river. Something caused the river to overflow pulling the trees off the banks into the river and causing a log jam of the largest trees but the smaller trees were able to continue downstream. The log jam resulted in trees settling to the bottom and being buried in the silt and mud of the water. As we know from Silver Springs, that prevents the tree from decaying and rotting. The minerals from the silt and the water then penetrated the wood filling the voided cells and over time, caused the petrification process.
As years progressed and the water receded, the trees became buried even deeper until the process reversed and erosion caused the dirt to wash away exposing the trees in their petrified form. They are everywhere in this area and very beautiful. Of course, mankind found a way to cut them with steel blades to expose their inner beauty and polish them to amplify the colors. The result is commercialized petrified wood.
We spent over 3 hours driving and walking through this incredible area and seeing things we normally would only see in photos. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day so the sunlight could not brighten the photos to show their true beauty. I think these will give you a sense of what we saw.
This area is also considered a treasure trove of fossils from previous ages because of all the artifacts and archeological finds made in the area. There are even petroglyphic drawings believed to be 2,000 years old.
One of the artifacts not quite that old is a 1932 Studebaker rusted and parked at the spot where Route 66 once ran through what is now this National Park.
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