Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

This National Park is truly impressive - we loved it.  An amazing array of colors, logs that had turned to stone strewn over vast areas, an ongoing discovery site for fossils from over 225 million years ago and ancient petroglyphs etched into stone by native Americans.  There are vast wilderness areas where people with permits can hike, take a horse or pack animal and camp.

The loop road off the northern side of the I-40 is six miles long and the lower half where we saw most of the fossilized logs is another 22 miles in length. Our first stop is nearly always at a Visitor Center, which usually includes a book store, gift shop and often a small theater where we can see an orientation film and talk to the Park officials or volunteers who are so informative.  

our first glimpse of the Painted Desert

During the heydays of Route 66, an Inn was built in 1924 on a segment of the road that runs through the park.  It was reconstructed in the 1930's and about 4-6 years ago, it was renovated and now looks as it did in 1949. Situated at a high level, we toured the Painted Desert Inn, which included some wonderful murals on the wall of the dining room, by the Indian Hopi artist, Fred Kabotie.   From this high point we also saw our first spectacular views of the wonderful scenery.  

Painted Desert Inn

Salt Lake Mural by Hopi Indian, Fred Kabotie

Nizhoni Point showing the "steps" of clay

About 600 years ago, according to experts, the Puerco Pueblo, which was our next stop  in the Park, contained about 100 rooms and along the trail around the ruins, we saw some fine examples of petroglyphs. Unlike hieroglyphs, these are symbols of people, animals and various designs chiseled into the rocks. Although their meanings are not easily interpreted today, the indigenous people recognize many of them as depictions of religious, ceremonial or story-telling events.

ruins at Puerco Pueblo

petroglyphs in the Petrified Forest

Although a cold wind was blowing on this sunny Easter Day, we hiked the one mile Blue Mesa Trail off a three mile road loop.  Parts of it were very steep but much of it was gently sloping and it was so worth the walk to get close to the amazing  blue and white layered rocks and the logs.  The basic story of how the logs came to be petrified is that millions of years ago, when water covered huge forests, logs buried under the mud eventually turned into stone when silica replaced all the organic material.  The beautiful colors were caused mainly by “iron and other minerals combined with quartz during the petrification process”.  Quote from an NPS pamphlet.

Blue Mesa Badlands

close up view of the bands of color along the Blue Mesa Trail in the Painted Desert

a petrified log appearing to be balanced 

cactus thriving along the Blue Mesa trail

trail of logs in the Blue Mesa valley

Our last stop was near the south entrance where the Giant Logs are located and we could wander amongst them.  There are very strict rules in the Park and hefty fines for picking up any pieces of petrified wood. People who’ve taken some often send letters of apology for the remorse they feel for removing it and occasionally return them.  Huge sections of logs and many smaller pieces, polished at the ends, are for sale but these pieces are taken from private land. They're also pretty expensive but they're a wonderful reminder of a remarkable place.

fossilized logs in the Petrified Forest

Giant Log - almost 10 feet across the base