We timed this adventure to the Petrified Forest National Park perfectly! Weather was comfortable for hiking the Agate House and Long Logs Trail, Crystal Forest Trail and viewing Newspaper Rock and Blue Mesa at the park and finishing our drive at the Painted Desert. During Covid-19 time now, masks were required to be worn when within 6 feet of other people and quite honestly not many people were at the park. Almost felt like we had the park to ourselves as we looked across the land with its petrified wood!
Many prehistoric people lived in this park known for its petrified wood. Trees once stood over 200 feet tall before flood waters carried them into a log jam where they were covered with mud and ash from volcanoes. As a result, the wood lacked oxygen to decay. The wood’s tissues broke down with minerals, such as silica, filling some voids in the tree. Over millions of years the minerals crystallized. After erosion, the logs are visible for us to see the colorful minerals crystallized within what is no longer wood of a tree. This petrified wood was once used by prehistoric people to make tools and use as building blocks. The agate house is one interesting gathering place from prehistoric time that still stands.
Part of the Agate House Trail is handicapped accessible and beyond a certain point it is not so well paved. While walking on this trail I saw a horned lark!
Long Logs Trail and Crystal Forest Trail are where you can see the tall trees now in their petrified state, all intact, while others are chunks throughout the park lands.
Agate Bridge is a petrified log that jammed in a spot now as a bridge, yet park officials had built a support underneath it to hold it longer for visitors to see it. Newspaper Rock is a designated area on the park’s road and worth a visit to see the petroglyphs. Blue Mesa is a short drive/loop off the park road and also good to see. All of this is a small glimpse of a large park.
Painted Desert can be accessed here at the Petrified Forest. It too is so much larger, but interesting to see even with this small glimpse of it.
Driving from Flagstaff, Arizona to the Petrified Forest National Park, we entered at the south entrance of the park, off Rte 180, and headed north through the park. Visitor centers were open, portable toilets available, and social distancing and masks required per park rules. Long ago people traveled the now historic route 66 by car to visit the park. Here is one car:
