Got Wood?

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever walked into something thinking you knew what to expect but only to realize when you get there that it is nothing like you imagined but only better? That is the way I felt when we arrived at the Petrified Forest today.

I expected to find some petrified trees. What I didn't expect was to find the place littered with trees. As far as you could see around you were huge logs that were 30' long down to little pieces that has been broken down over time. It was if someone had collected all these trees and just thrown them in one big pile. This pile extends for miles though.

The colors were so bright. Red, black, brown and white's. It almost looked like someone had polished some of these pieces.

We spent the day hiking different trails to only find more of these petrified trees. The way they all ended up here is quite interesting. They believe that over 250 million years ago this whole area was a thick forest. With a huge volcanic eruption it uprooted these trees and sent them down this river which eventually became log jammed with so many trees. Over the millions of years the sediment from the volcano and dirt covered up these logs. Slowly the minerals started to be soaked into this wood and it created crystals. Fast forward many many years and the area dries up and becomes this desert. With rains it slowly starts to wash these layers off these trees until they become exposed.

I thought about how I would try and describe what we saw today but the words seem difficult to put together. I hope the pictures that we took will help and give you an idea of the quantity and size of these trees. What an incredible day. I spoke to one person that had just come from the Grand Canyon. He said that this place is just as Grand but on a completely different scale.