Petrified Forest
National Park

Within the colorful badland hills, flat-topped mesas, and sculptured buttes of Arizona's Painted Desert, you'll find the Petrified Forest National Park, located on the southern part of the Colorado Plateau, about twenty miles easy of Holbrook. Best known for its fossils of plant and animal life from a time long ago, this seemingly barren, dry tableland still supports hundreds of different species today. The fossils found within the Chinle Formation layers of rock also reveal a very different climate and ecosystem that once existed here. 

Image a vast tropical floodplain, sitting on the equator; streams flowing through the lush lowlands with pine-like trees, nine feet in diameter and towering two hundred feet; crocodile-like reptiles, giant amphibians, small dinosaurs, and fish living here among dense vegetation and winding waterways. Scientists believe that this region comprised the southwest edge of the earth's largest landmass, millions of years ago. They say that a tectonic movement in the earth's crust caused the continent to drift apart, with this portion of the "super continent" shifting north and west to its current position.

Petrified wood came about as these stately trees died or were knocked down. While most of them decomposed and disappeared, some washed into the flood plain where silt, mud, and volcanic ask covered the logs. Oxygen was cut off, thus slowing the decay process. Silica-laden groundwater seeped through the logs, replacing the original wood tissue with silica deposits. The silica crystallized into quartz, and the logs were preserved as petrified wood. Iron and manganese oxides combined with the quartz during the process to create the brilliant colors.

The best way to enjoy and experience the park's 218,000 acres is on foot. Trails range from less than a half-mile to over three miles. Don't worry, you won't meet any living dinosaurs, but you may see pronghorns, prairie dogs, coyotes, bobcats, rattlesnakes, falcons, and golden eagles. Overnight camping is free but does require a permit. Horseback riding is permitted in the wilderness area of the park.

For general park information, call 928-524-6228 or go to www.nps.gov/pefo.