Entering the park from the southern entrance on Highway 180 you run first into the Petrified Forest area. The area was originally a flood plain and trees fell into this and were covered by a layer of silt, mud and volcanic ash. This layer cut off air to the logs and allowed the silica rich groundwater to seep through the logs and slowly replace the wood tissue with silica. Eventually the silica crystallised into quartz and the Petrified Forest was born.



Initially heading north from the Highway 180 entrance into the park you run through a variety of typical desert landscapes with just a hint of what is to come.

Then you reach the Crystal Forest where a number of trails take you through the remains of the trees which became petrified as quartz.

This is the text from the above display board.

It is thought that only somewhere between 5% and 10% of the original deposits of petrified wood now remain.  There are areas of Petrified Wood outside the park so it is possible to acquire examples legally.

The following photographs were taken from the laid out walks through the Crystal Forest. There were occasional shelters / seats which were most welcome as, despite it being early in the morning, it was already in the 90s.

In some places the material has remained as complete logs while in others it has broken into smaller pieces almost like it had been chopped up.

The photograph below shows that the park does not neatly breakdown into the four areas I described, there is considerable overlap as that the picture below shows, it was taken from one of the Crystal Forest walks, but has a background that shows all the characteristics of the Painted Desert.

Further north you reach the area entitled Jasper Forest, from the lookout points you can see fields of petrified wood scattered over a wide area. To give an idea of the scale those tiny pieces are actually similar in size to the one photographed in close up above.

These photographs look down into the valley and again show the terrain is a mixture of Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Again those tiny pieces of petrified wood you can see are actually similar in size to the one photographed in close up above - this gives some idea of the scale of the park.

North of the Jasper Forest can be found the site known as “The Agate Bridge”.

Heading north from the Agate Bridge the scenery reverts to a more common desert type but with traces of the Painted Desert type of terrain about it.

Carry on to the Painted Desert

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