Day 16: (2of2) Monday May 18th, Petrified Forest

It was a long (but beautiful) drive in and out of New Mexico, and Arizona to Petrified Forest In Arizona.

 

We made it there on the north end by 5:30 pm, before it closed. Welcome to the Petrified Forest :)

Even though we arrived late (ish), the ranger said as long as we were leaving the park by 7 pm no problem (Leaving, not left).  The drive from one end to the other is 28 miles and takes 45 minutes with no stops.


 That gave us enough time to see the north end sights,

drive through the park, and also stop at the Crystal Forest sight in the south, which had an amazing assortment of petrified wood. Man the colors.

It was mind boggling to see the wood, looking on the outside like real wood, bark and all, but then see the insides full of quartz and crystals. Then to feel it and know it is definitely not wood anymore.

The petrifying process takes millions of years and a particular set of circumstances: First you have to have a bunch of trees uprooted for some reason, in this case a flood. Then the trees have to be buried in sediment. Again, in this case from the flood they ran down the river and ended in a swamp, became so waterlogged they sank to the bottom and were covered in layer after  layer of silt and silica along with minerals like iron and manganese. Then you need time and pressure. Over time The silica slowly displaces the cellulose in the trees, cell by cell, calcifying it. With enough pressure, you get quartz.


The beautiful colors in the quartz  come from impurities such as  iron, manganese and other minerals I  don't remember the names of. 

The desert is amazing. There are two things particularly special about this desert: one is the eroding rock formations and mesas. Sure there are other places that have something like this, maybe different colors and what not, but here is the second reason, the Petrified Logs.

Again, sure there are lots of places that have petrified wood, it's not rare, but this is  the place with the highest density of logs, in the world.

So you combine the two and you have a pretty magical place. Oh and add in all the petroglyphs and you have a trifecta of a national monument.

We were able to stay that night at a free camp ground at the gift shop on the south end. No hook ups, but they have pull throughs so they were nice and level and we didn't even have to unhook the truck to camp, we just put the stabilizers down and we were good for the night. Our plan is to get up early tomorrow and go back through the park again, see the sights we skipped today and stop in  Albuquerque at the Camping World they have there so they can take a look at our tweaked trailer hitch tongue. We are worried that it might need repair from that unintentional 180.