Petrified Forest, Arizona

The name of the park, and its major reason for creation, is the rich collection of petrified wood found mainly in the south portion of the park. It is the most spectaclular collection of petrified wood ever found. In many areas large logs, stumps, and chunks of crystal may be found lying freely around the ground.

The petrified wood found in the park began its existence as large trees from an ancient forest some 225 years ago. After falling, the trees were washed downstream from as far as 50 miles away onto a flood plain which lay on the current area of the park. The logs were covered by volcanic sand and silt sometimes to a depth of 1100 feet.

Over time, as water seeped toward the buried logs waterborne silica slowly replaced the wood, creating the petrified logs.

n some sections fairly large sections of trees can be found lying about. The largest is "Old Faithful", found in the Rainbow Forest in the southern section of the park. This specimen has a diameter of 9 1/2 feet.