Petrified Forest, Arizona
Petrified Forest and Painted Desert |
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On our way to Winslow we visited the Petrified Forest National Park.Unfortunately, we had to do this during a pretty fierce thunderstorm and it was not always safe to leave the car. when you are the tallest object in the area .... Nevertheless, Nick managed to take some nice pictures of a very special area. Below is what looks like a meadow with rocks - actually, these are petrified pieces of wood, millions of years old.
A ravine covered with pieces of what looks like wood, but of course today they are really stones
This was really a tree!
The petrified forest is special, not because there is some petrified wood in this park, you can find that all over the world. What makes it special is the sheer quantity of wood. Apparently there was a huge forest in this area which was felled by serious storms sometime in the Triassic period (REALLY long time ago, you know - dinosaurs and such).
The felled trees were then covered by ash and silica from volcanic explosions and the woodfibers were replaced by silica and various minerals, resulting in petrification and the very interesting colors various pieces have. The park was created in 1906 to stop the looting of petrified wood by commercial interests and just plain tourists.
On the way out of the park all cars are subject to inspection by rangers because people are still stealing about 1 ton of wood a year. We looked innocent (or feeble) and did not have to unload the car.
Below a picture of rocks with petroglyphs. Not easy to see, but it was in a thunderstorm!
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