It’s no secret that we’ve made a bit of a mission to see as many national parks as possible as we crisscross the nation. From the Big Five in Utah to the often bucket-listed Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns, we’ve seen a lot. One charming and often overlooked park, however, is Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.
What to Expect at Petrified Forest National Park
From the title, you may expect just to see petrified trees. Petrified Forest National Park is more than just that.
Historic Route 66
The park is partially bifurcated by Interstate 40. I-40 was built, partially, along the route pioneered by Historic Route 66, also known lovingly as the “Mother Road” of America. Because of this, we learned an interesting archaeological fact. Roadside litter is an unfortunate fact of life. However, that same litter, if left for 50 years, is now considered an artifact! So a crumpled beer can or old tin of pomade found in the park isn’t necessarily litter to pack out, but a find to alert a ranger of!
Looking at the studies of anthropology and archeology, the main way we learn about the cultures, trends, and lifestyles of past civilizations is by digging through their trash. From the benign trash of broken sandals to the truly extraordinary Lloyds Bank coprolite, we can get a surprising amount of insight into what our ancestors were up to. Though I must admit, in the face of “leave no trace,” leaving artifacts that so closely resemble trash is a hard nut to swallow.
Painted Desert
Rocks tell a story, and the rocks at Petrified Forest are no exception. The area, officially known as the Chinle Formation, is more colloquially known as the “painted desert.” It gets this name from the bands of contrasting colors decorating the landscape. These bands tell the ancient story of this land as it went from shores, to lake bottom, swamp to desert, and even a lava-scorched plain.
Petroglyphs and More
European settlers were not the first people to set foot in this storied landscape. Newspaper Rock is a unique formation of over 600 unique petroglyphs from several generations of indigenous peoples. These carvings, the evidence of those who came before, are the stories they left behind in the very stone. They even left stories in the form of the Agate house. This structure, built by the Puebloan people, was made of the very petrified wood that gives this national park its name.
The Petrified Forest
While not the only geological wonder of this national park, the petrified forest is the main draw. Formed from the buried wood of a 300-million-year-old forest, areas of the park are littered with “logs” of petrified wood. More resistant to erosion than the surrounding mud and sandstones, these ancient giants sit on the desert floor. Some of them look like a modern fallen tree, cut into lengths, and waiting for the woodcutter to come back and split the wood for the hearth fire. Romantic as this notion is, it’s a humbling reminder that these trees fell, were buried, and turned to stone when the first known dinosaurs first started to walk the earth, and long before proto-mammals, our great-great-many-times-over ancestors.
Whether you’re a geology buff, history buff, art enthusiast, or just a fan of the outdoors, Petrified Forest National Park has something for every member of your party to sink their metaphorical teeth into!