At first I was afraid, I was petrified…but then I really enjoyed the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. If you don’t enjoy a lot of hiking, this park should be near the top of your list as you can see so much of it just driving through!
After Doug’s son, Hayden, and Tressa (Hayden’s then girlfriend and now, wife) graduated from NAU in Flagstaff, Doug and I took some extra time to see Meteor Crater, the Petrified Forest, and Winslow, Arizona. That was 2014 so it was great to return and spend a little more time exploring the Petrified Forest and Winslow in the spring of this year.
Theodore Roosevelt created Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906 and 56 years later in 1962, it became a national park.
I would have described this 50,000 acres as a high desert, but the national park service says it is “intermountain basin, semi-arid steppe and shortgrass prairie”.
Petrified Forest National Park is the only national park site that contains a segment of historic Route 66.
The large petrified stumps and fallen trees that dot this landscape were formed when the trees died, washed into an ancient river system forming log jams that were then buried in sediment. Minerals, including silica dissolved from volcanic ash, absorbed into the porous wood over hundreds and thousands of years crystallized within the cellular structure, replacing the organic material as it broke down over time. If there were larger spaces such as a hollow or crack in the logs, crystals of clear or white quartz, purple amethyst, and yellow citrine. manganese oxides form blue, purple, black, and brown colors in the wood and iron oxides provide hues from yellow through red to brown and black.
Day 1 Itinerary
- Painted Desert Visitor Center
- Painted Desert Overlooks
- The 1932 Studebaker that sits where Route 66 cuts through the park
- Newspaper Rock – some petroglyphs as old as 2000 years but they were a bit disappointing, as they’re viewed from an overlook so being binoculars.
- Blue Mesa – a beautiful 1 mile hike that’s worth the high winds!
- Agate Bridge – a 100ft petrified log that spans a gulley. This has since been supported by cement to maintain it so was a little hokey.
- Jasper Forest – provided a good look at the petrified logs
Day 2 Itinerary
- Rainbow Forest Museum for a look at fossils
- Giants Log Trail which starts from the museum
We then drove through Holbrook to stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, a must-see for any Eagles fan…and we have at least 2 on board! We grabbed our must-take photos on the painted corner, perused the shops and restaurants and wondered if there’s any other town in the United States that exists solely due to a line in a song?
Even though we’d been to both the Petrified Forest and Winslow on a prior trip, we enjoyed both locations just as much the second time around!
