Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest National Park

Yesterday Barbara and I traveled north to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest National Park. These two parks overlap in many places and the route we took, took us through the best parts of both parks. We saw a lot of beautiful scenery along with Indian petroglyphs and ruins, petrified trees, old route 66 and I was able to take several vigorous hikes. The weather cooperated too. The only downside was the Tunnel fire burning just northeast of Flagstaff that produced a lot of smoke and haze.

The petrified trees began their lives approximately 220 million years ago on the supercontinent of Pangea at the late stages of its existence. At that time this area was just above sea level and a dense rainforest like the ones seen today in Central America. Shortly after, Pangea began to break apart and what is now known as North America moved north from 10 degrees above the equator to it’s current location. These trees are now 25 degrees further north than they were when they began their journey. During their journey north these trees died and were buried. During their burial their cells were replaced with silica to form the tree like agate that is known as petrified trees. Approximately 100 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period, this area began to rise creating the Colorado Plateau. This caused the area to change from a rainforest to the arid desert we see today.