Petrified Forest National Park Park One (5 Pics)

My last post for today of the pictures from my trip to Northern Arizona of a week ago. I'll finish up tomorrow. Or, you can just click on the "Travel" link in my signature and see all 312 pictures (most of which I will not be posting here, of course!).

After visiting the Meteor Crater, I headed further east to Petrified Forest National Park. Like the Grand Canyon, I hadn't been there since August, 1978, when my dad's job moved us from Omaha, Nebraska back to California, and we stopped at all the tourist traps on our way back west.

A crystalized tree trunk:

Beautiful shots Lonnie, It's really hard to believe that they were once actual living trees. Isn't nature amazing?

That crystallised tree trunk shot is amazing. Were there lots of them about?

love the shots, seems like an interesting park, but a wierd one

Very nice shots, Lonnie. You gotta love the colors in these rocks.

Right,OK,i agree with all the above but am i missing something here?
Do we know what caused this crystalisation?

These are amazing! I love the second one where you can actually see the rings in the tree. I remember seeing a petrified tree in Yellowstone many years ago when we were out there.

Dimitri, I wondered the same thing so I looked it up. (I love the internet!)

http://www.nps.gov …In_Depth/Treest​oStone.htm

terrific shots Lonnie



and I love the shape of the real live tree in the second last shot

Again, thanks for all the comments! Also, thanks for that link, Becca. That explains it better than I ever could.

Yes, there were quite a few of them scattered here and there in groups, or groves I suppose you could call it. The best preserved ones are near the visitor's center near the southern entrance to the park. That's where the first picture was taken.

ACDCROCKS wrote:
love the shots, seems like an interesting park, but a wierd one

It definitely is one of the more bizarre national parks I've ever been to. There are more petrified trees in Valley of Fire, a state park in Nevada, but they aren't nearly as colorful as the crystal-looking ones here.

Oh, and that was supposed to say "Part One" in the thread title... Not "Park One". I blame my proofreader, whoever that is.

Part Two will be coming soon.