One of the highlights of our trip to Flagstaff was the two-hour drive to visit the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. We headed west and got off I-40 onto U.S. 180. Our first great experience of the day was a stop in Holbrook at the Holbrook Flea Market. This is actually one shop that has a tremendous amount of petrified wood for sale out front! Private land owners collect it from their property and bring it in to sell. This is all perfectly legal. The illegal action is taking even a small rock off the grounds of the National Park. THAT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN! Anyway, this fantastic shop was run by a great fellow named Chuck Tabor and I invite you to look at the entry about that shopping experience in this journal.

At the entrance of the park, we began our self-guided tour. (Pamphlet available at the gate.) We saw amazing long logs made of rainbow colored rock. We learned about the fossils they find on a continual basis and we learned about the geological processes that brought these amazing logs of wood back to the surface. I have done an entire journal "Petrified Forest-Shadows from a Time Long Past" which contains significantly more information than I can include here.

Among the other things you will see here are pre-colonial Indian sites and petroglyphs. When you move to the north you'll see the magnificent Painted Desert! Brilliant bands of red, white, black and other colors make this one of the most beautiful places on earth!

All the brochures I read suggest 2-3 hours for the visit. That seems a bit rushed. If you stop at all 18 sites within the Park you will spend closer to 5-6 hours. There is really a lot to do and learn. In Feb. the Park opens at 8am and closes at 5pm. June-Aug. -- 6am-7pm Sept and May -- 7am-6pm. There is a 17 minute film in the Painted Desert Visitor's center that explains how wood in petrified. At the south gate shop, Crystal Forest Museum and Gift Shop, (928-524-3500) there is free overnight camping and free electricity with the purchase of $50 of merchandise. The cost for the park is $10 per car and $5 per persons on bus, bicycle, or foot. You simply can't be disappointed by this park, so send me an email after you visit and tell me what you liked the most!

Starting from the south as we did, the first opportunity to see petrified logs is a place called "Giant Logs" Guess what you see here? At this site will be the Rainbow Forest Museum which has a dinosaur on display as well as other displays about the park. There is also a bathroom at the facility! However, the star of the museum in out back. You are given a self guided tour brochure and shown the paved trail. It is about .4 miles long. Although the trail is not handicapped accessible, it is a fairly easy walk with a few stairs to climb. .The self guided tour suggested we spend at least 20 minutes at this site. So we did! The trail winds through some of the biggest trees in the park, including the biggest, "Old Faithful" whose diameter at the thickest point is 9 ft. Most of the logs at this stop and throughout the park are broken into pieces. Because the pieces all fit together and even the lines of petrification match, we know these trees were solid when they were transformed. The breakage is probably due to stress on the log as the uplift of the Colorado plateau happened. Petrified logs are made out of quartz which will fracture and break fairly easily when in long crystals. We talk about quartz like it is one substance, however, the silica which created the petrified logs is clear quartz only in its purest form. Jasper, agate, and chalcedony are also forms of quartz.

When you visit the petrified forest, you'll notice that clear quartz is very rare. Yellow, red, and brown colorings are due to iron oxides. Black is from carbon. Rarely blues and purples can be found as iron oxides and carbon combine in unusual proportions.

The next major stop for log viewing is the "Long Logs Trail". It is 1/2 mile and meanders through the longest logs in the park -- the longest being close to 150 feet. The next area will be "Crystal Forest Trail" about 3/4 a mile. At one time, several of the hollows in these logs contained amethyst crystals. "Jasper Forest" is another place you can overlook petrified logs strewn about. These places comprise the biggest concentrations of logs in the park. You will see logs individually at times, but don't expect to see them everywhere. They are mostly in the southern part of the park. Other areas in the park will be devoted to archeology or geological formations.

The Petrified Forest was simply AMAZING, and it was also one of the first parks we went to. We spent a full 8-hour day there and had a picnic and a nice, leisurely drive. We had originally only planned on about 4 hours, but honestly, we could have spent 2 days here.

A 28-mile road goes down the center of the park, with several stopping areas in between. This may sound like a few miles to spend 8 hours in, but every mile of it is just fascinating. There are massive amounts of petrified wood here, and the trees are just amazing. They are more crystal than rock, really. You can see the rings of the trees still, but it is literally rings of different-colored crystal. They are everywhere alongside the road, sticking out of hills, laying in valleys, or on hiking trails. You could see thousands of trees from your car window if you didn't want to walk. There are also old ruins and petroglyphs at Petrified Forest, so there is obviously much to see. We spent so much time pointing out things from the car that I am surprised I didn’t hit someone. There are also numerous places to stop and miles and miles of hiking trails for the more adventurous. Bathroom facilities are located at regular intervals, so no worries there, either.

The sheer amount and size of the petrified wood is impossible to describe without being there. It’s also a great park for the physically challenged to visit. Many prime examples are right at the parking lots. You can view the ruins and petroglyphs from several of the parking lots without getting off the pavement, and chances for great photos are everywhere. Be sure to look carefully at all rock faces, though, as I would have missed half the petroglyphs, had my wife not pointed them out.

If you love nature, this is a great park. The size and layout of the park make it seem less busy than it really is. While the park appeared to be fairly busy, we only ran into people at the restrooms and only once on the trails. Oftentimes you will have a whole viewpoint or parking lot to yourselves. Plan at least a full day here and bring lots of film. Also bring some water if you want to hike and good hiking shoes. The trails are improved but often have loose bits of rock or shale on them.

Of all the national parks I have been to, this is very close to the top, if not #1, in my opinion.

The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert are connected by a 26-mile loop road. As you drive through the park and see all of the logs and tree fragments scattered over the landscape, it is nearly impossible to imagine the area millions of years ago.

There are several overlooks and walks that provide you with opportunities to see and even touch the petrified wood. REMINDER: TOUCH--DO NOT TAKE! It is a federal offense to take samples. If you are interested in owning a piece of petrified wood, we suggest you stop at Jim Grays' Petrified Wood Shop located on the west end of the park in the town of Holbrook, AZ. They are open one hour past the closing time of the park, so take your time and enjoy!

We especially enjoyed the Giant Logs Trail and the Crystal Forest trails. Both are easy leisurely walks of less than 30 minutes.