PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK
including The Painted Desert
There is not a lot
that we can say about this spectacular National Park. No matter where you
drive, the scenery takes your breathe away. These photos were taken in
early April so reflect the beginning of Spring in the desert. Vegetation
is just awakening and turning on its color; animals are starting to reappear
after the Winter season; and, the weather couldn't get any better -- in the 60s
and 70s with sunshine every day.
The Petrified Forest was formed fifty to two hundred million years ago.
Trees were buried in the mud and volcanic ash. The movement of water into
cracks and crevices in the wood depositing minerals and hundreds of pounds of
pressure, the WOOD becomes solid STONE. As you look at the pictures, look
for the colors created by different minerals in the water --
Reds, yellows and browns -- Iron
Blue or blue green -- copper
Black -- magnesium and carbon
White or Gray -- manganese
It is a Federal
offence to collect or remove petrified wood from the Park. Violators can
be fined, imprisoned or both. Superstition says that if you
remove petrified wood artifacts from the Park, you will be cursed with bad
luck. At the Visitors' Center, you can read letters that have been written
returning pieces of wood to the Park; some are from the person who took the
artifact and others are from surviving family members. In all of the
cases, bad luck had fallen on the holder of the "stolen" petrified
wood.
The Painted Desert
is situated in the Northern section of the Petrified Forest National Park -- see
pictures 1-16.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1 -- Petrified Forest National Park
2-3 -- Tiponi Point
4 -- Nancy at Tiponi Point
5-8 -- Tawa Point
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
9 -- Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark. Historically, the Inn
has served as a trading post, an inn and restaurant. Today it is a
museum.
10 -- Mural by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie. Several others can be viewed
within the Inn.
11 -- Native American Weaver
12 -- Entrance Painted Desert Inn
13-16 -- Pintado Point. We had a picnic lunch at this overlook
viewing area.
Petroglyphs are a form
of rock art and were created by chipping, drilling or scraping away the surface
to expose the inner layer of the rock face. In this part of
the desert, sharp stones created from flint, jasper or agate would have been
common. Native Americans used this form of art as a means of
communication. Thousands of these images can be found all over the
Southwest.
Petroglyphs are
recognizable human figures, animals and geometric patterns that can be
interpreted to tell stories.
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
17-19 -- Newspaper Rock. Petroglyphs etched into stone.
20 -- The Tepees. The colors appear to be red, white and blue -- red
is iron; white is sandstone and "bluish" hues (darker veins) are
carbonite.
21 -- Pieces of petrified wood that have been exposed after hundreds of years of
erosion.
22 - 24 -- Views along Park Road of exposed petrified logs.
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
26 -- More "Red, White
& Blue"
27 -- Exposed petrified tree.
28 -- Agate Bridge. (The support under the Petrified Tree was
built by the Parks Service to preserve the Bridge.)
29 -- Jasper Forest
30-33
-- Crystal Forest
34-35 -- What minerals can you identify?
36 -- Petrified Wood Garden at Rainbow Forest Museum
NEXT
STOP: TOMBSTONE, AZ
