As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about the painted desert, millions of years ago this land was covered in a lush thick forest. Over 200 million years ago actually. Today, as the painted desert erodes, it exposes the fossilized artifacts of the ancient forest. It is the world’s largest concentration of petrified wood.
200 million year old trees!! Seriously, I had to look it up a number of times to believe that the trees I touched were 200 million years old.
From afar, it doesn’t really look all that impressive. Please click the images to view larger versions.
But once you get a little closer it is really quite astonishing.
The petrified wood is almost solid quartz so hard it can only be cut with a diamond tipped saw.
It is illegal to take any pieces of the wood out of the park and there are severe penalties if you are caught with any in your pockets.
The national parks always have an introductory movie about the park that you can watch in the visitor’s center. In the movie about the Petrified Forest there was a cute part about all the packages they receive in the mail every year. Packages containing rocks and notes of apology. It seems many people are compelled to return the rocks they have taken.
If you liked this article, consider signing up for my free monthly newsletter which contains exclusive photo tips and tutorials which are not available on the blog, stories from my recent travels and you’ll even get two free photography eBooks as a bonus.
Great images Anne. Petrified Forest is such a cool location – it’s hard to imagine that this arid land was ever a lush wet forest!
Hi Russ, thank you! I know it is hard to image dinosaurs roaming the land, and an ocean, a forest – it’s hard to believe that stuff is wood! It’s more what you would expect to come out of a mine and not out of an old forest. Weird.
That is so cool Anne. I didn’t know that. The close up images are incredible.
Thank you very much Edith! I didn’t know either, I’m learning so much on this trip, both geology and history. Oh and geography too, I actually know where many of the states are now!! Still not all of them but lots of them. It’s really interesting to travel this way and learn all the stories of the different places. It started with all civil war stuff and slaves and plantations and now it’s all dinosaurs and cowboys.
Hi Anne. Great piece of work there. Loved those images from ma heart. They’re really beautiful.
Hi Nolan, thank you very much for the visit and comments, much appreciated!
You’re most welcome!
Wow, those are some incredible colors!
Thank you very much Jill! I was surprised to find those kinds of colours in the wood.
Really cool. That is an awesome example of polymorphism. While some of it is quartz, that 2nd shot looks very much like boulder opal. I have a huge chunk of the stuff from Australia, looks just like it.
Opal and Quartz have the same chemical composition IIRC so not surprising they would be found together.
Hi Aaron, no wonder the park rangers are so adamant that no one takes rocks from the park! They seem to come in all sorts of colours. Thank you very much for the compliment.
its awsom to be like you.
I’m glad you enjoy my images Jisho 🙂
These are great images. They have incredible colors. Its hard to believe they were once trees and that there once was a forest there.
Hi Michael, I know! I cannot quite fathom that there was a forest here. Somehow it is easier to imagine the dinosaurs than the forest. Thank you very much for your compliment.
Amazing photos! I never knew petrified wood could look like that.
Hi Megan, I didn’t either until I visited there! Thank you very much for your visit and comments.
Really cool! It’s hard to believe that this is wood that is 200 million years old! Thanks for sharing these photos.
Hi Mary, thank you very much for your visit and kind comments, much appreciated!
Great pics, Anne. The colours are amazing! So vivid!
Thanks Fred, it was really quite a unique place. It’s amazing to me that the trees end up looking like marble. Thanks for your comments.