Petrified Forest National Park is one of the best places in the world to see fossils that date back to the Late Triassic Period (approximately 200 million years ago.) While petrified dinosaur remains are relatively widespread through the West, this park is noted for the petrified forest and petrified wood pieces that are scattered throughout the southern portion of the park. Making petrified wood takes a very long time (like millions of years) and the process is detailed below.

A road bisected the park and below are a small sample of the vistas you can easily see from your vehicle. They may look like wood, but they are definitely as hard as stone!

The park also has many petroglyphs, a written record of ancient people who lived in this area, some more than 2000 years old. These were some of the easiest to spot and recognize.

The Puerco Pueblo is another remarkably well-preserved site dating from the 13th century which showed clearly with the many visible remains where the kiva and the main living quarters of the village were located.

Painted Desert

We had run out of time by we reached the Painted Desert section of the park, and a quick drive through this section was all we had, but it was a drive with vistas like these below at every turn.