Petrified Forest, Arizona

While Robert and I were on vacation in Snowflake, Arizona last week, we decided to take a trip out to the Petrified Forest. The road through the Petrified Forest runs from US 180 to I-40.

Our first stop was at the Rainbow Forest Museum. Before actually entering the museum we noticed a shop off to the side of the parking lot and decided to start there first. I always hate going in these shops because I love all the Native American artwork and wish I could both afford the items and have somewhere to display them. This one artist really caught my eye and I took a picture so I could look her up on the Internet.

In the museum Robert and I found a replica display of dinosaurs. We had fun taking pictures.

Our next stop was the Giant Logs trail. There were quite a few people out for it being during the week. I was really surprised. These fossilized logs were huge.

Robert took this next one.

Robert took this shot too.

The land we see now is nothing like it used to be when the dinosaurs walked here. At one time the area was a vast floodplain with tall trees and streams. When the continents moved to their present places, the climate changed, and this area became today’s grasslands. Each layer of color is a different layer of earth that has been worn by wind and water. As the earth is worn away more and more fossilized remains become evident. Petrified wood is scattered all over the place.

Agate Bridge is created by a fossilized tree. Visitors created a concrete bridge underneath it to keep it from falling.

From up high you can see where some of the fossilized trees litter the valley below.

My favorite part of the whole trip was seeing Newspaper Rock. There were hundreds of petroglyphs etched all over some of the stones. It was a little tricky getting pictures because the petroglyphs are so far away from the viewing platform and because the sun was moving causing some of them to disappear into the shadows and others to appear in the new light.

At Puerco Pueblo we saw even more petroglyphs.

On our way along the road we came across this old car sitting along old Route 66.

Last but definitely not least we drove through the Painted Desert before catching I-40 and heading back to our property in Snowflake. The Painted Desert is just awesome and beautiful and the pictures don’t do it any justice.