Unearth The History Of Arizona’s Petrified Forest!

The Petrified Forest National Park is situated in the Painted Desert of northern Arizona. When you visit this national park, you step into a landscape full of colorful hills, fossils, and over 200 million years worth of geological history. While some find the Petrified Forest boring, the fossils discovered there give us insight into our far-from-boring past.

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The Painted Desert

The Petrified Forest is situated in the heart of Arizona's stunning Painted Desert. This Desert expands for over 150 miles, starting at the eastern end of the Grand Canyon. The hills in this desert are uniquely stunning, with layers of red, orange, pink, purple, blue, and sometimes even green rock. 

The reason these hills are so stunning has to do with the surplus of mineral deposits in the area and ancient rivers that carried these minerals all over the place. Almost every red or orange rock is rich in iron, while blue rocks in the area contain copper. Other minerals like Manganese and Chromium create purple, pink, and green rocks. When all these chemicals and minerals are found in close range, we see mountains with layers of vivid color develop.

READ: 3 Things You Might Not Know About The Grand Canyon.

Petrified Wood

The Petrified Wood found in the Petrified Forest National Park isn't technically wood at all, and the park isn't technically in a forest either. A forest once stood where the desert is now, and as the trees began to fall, and the dust settled in, fossils started forming. The logs left from the trees were carried away by a river system and then buried deep under sediment.

Eventually, rocks like quartz and amethyst began forming where organic matter once sat, creating petrified wood. These rocks look like wood, but the organic tree matter has long since decompossed. As the ground began to erode once again, the ancient fossils were uncovered, creating a unique desert landscape, covered in petrified logs. The logs in this national park are estimated to be over 200 million years old, according to the National Park Service.

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Other Fossils

On top of the ancient stone logs, the Petrified Forest is a cradle for all sorts of fossils. Evidence of dinosaurs, early reptiles, and even ancient Carnivora species has been found in the Petrified Forest. One of the most notable finds in this national park was the complete skull of a Phytosaur, an ancient relative of the crocodile.

The Petrified Forest is home to paleontologists who research ancient wildlife, the evolution of birds and reptiles, and ancient people. One of the most unique parts of the
Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest are the things that use to live there.

The Petrified Forest and the surrounding desert remain one of Arizona's most significant windows into the geological past. The combination of the beautifully painted desert, fossilized wood, and the evidence of ancient organisms continues to bring in thousands of visitors every year. For anyone passing through northern Arizona, the park offers a rare chance to see the state's prehistoric past preserved right in front of your eyes.

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