Tues, Dec 1, 2020-Petrified Forest National Park

We expected to spend an hour or two at PFNP but we found it so unique we spent all day. We went there thinking there would see some hand sized pieces of petrified wood but were we wrong! We saw forests of petrified wood!

Here’s a sample of some of the sizes of these trees now turned to crystal:

The process of trees turning into rocks is a fascinating one. Several million years, when this area of NE Arizona was covered by a massive swamp, these giant trees fell into water. Over a few million more years, sediment covered the trees so they were preserved. Fast forward a few more million years and the atoms in the trees crystallized into petrified wood.

The colors they crystallize into vary from red to orange to yellow to blue to gray to white to you name it. Here are a couple of pics of the colors of petrified trees:

These two pics describes the large reddish polished sample above. 

I set my wedding ring on this tree to give it some perspective

Here’s a pic of my Bride with Dottie at the entrance to the park:

Petrified Forest NP has a strict policy AGAINST removing any of the petrified wood from the park. As we left the park, we saw an extreme example of someone trying to break that federal law:

We’ve been in the Northern AZ cities of Williams, Flagstaff, and Holbrook and we’re freezing! The lows at night have been mainly in the teens until tonight. The forecast for tonight is 10 degrees! That’s the lowest we’ve seen since it was 9 degrees at Zephyr Cove on Lake Tahoe in Oct of 2019. 

We’re looking forward to getting to the Dallas area next week to see Sara, Caleb, and the kids and to get warm!