Walking back in time: Petrified Forest NP, AZ

It is a cool, crisp morning here in Blanding, Utah, where we spent the night. We'll soon be on our way to nearby Canyonlands NP.  

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The drive from Globe to the Petrified Forest NP led through unexpectedly dramatic country. I suppose I should have clued in that this could happen if I'd paid more attention to the mention of Salt River Canyon here and there in brochures of the Globe area, but I didn't, and thus I was totally unprepared for what expected us. From Globe the road rose slowly for a while, the colours of the landscape around stark and beautiful. And then we started the descent into the canyon, in long serpentines, sometimes hairpin curves, through huge spires glowing in many hues of red and brown—no description can do this justice. This is Apache country, and, having grown up in Germany with the books of the German author Karl May, who, never having been on this continent, described the adventures of 'Old Shatterhand' and his Apache friend, Winnetou, I tried to put what I read as a kid together with what I experienced now. While there was no Winnetou, ever, people have lived here for thousands of years, and once again I could only marvel how they survived.

Once we had climbed out of the canyon again and had passed the (obvioulsy very tourist-oriented) town of Show-Low the landscape reverted more and more to the dry, sandy plains we have traversed often here in the southwest. Petrified Forest NP is part of this landscape where erosion has shaped not only the badland mesas and valleys but has also exposed the petrified trees this park is named for, as well as many other fossils, and continues to do so.

When we turned off the highway we stopped at the visitor centre for some information and a map and soon found that this was not the NP visitor centre but one administered by the Navajo Nation. The park is part of their lands. We admired some of the pricey artwork created from petrified wood, among others a huge block that weighed 28,000 lbs.

It is not surprising that security is tight in this park: thefts have occurred, though not as widespread and damaging as rumoured. Shortly after we passed the entry gate flashing lights indicated a road control: we were asked if we could answer a few questions regarding our experience at the gate with the ranger admitting us. I'm not sure what this was about; is there a constant review of these park employees to make sure that they don't aid in possible theft?

Armed with the official map of the park and some tips where best to spend the 2 1/2 hours we had left until the park closed at five (we didn't know this before we came) we were on our way to the first stop.

“Crystal Forest” is probably the area with the most concentrated incidence of petrified logs in the park. Trails connected with the different view points are paved and thus easy to walk, and this one was just over a kilometre long. It is strange and beautiful to see these crystallized logs scattered all over, to think that all of these were once trees, most of them of tropical origin. During the Triassic Period all of this land resided on the supercontinent Pangea, at about the latitude of present-day Costa Rica. When Pangea broke apart, the North American continent moved northward, and over the next several millions of years the Colorado Plateau lifted up by about a mile. This is the reason why it is so arid here now.

This area was once at the edge of a river channel. Fallen trees crisscrossed the channel and some of the adjacent floodplain. Periodic flooding buried some of these trees under layers of silt. Over time, silica-enriched groundwater percolated through the logs and replaced the organic material, creating a replica in quartz. Erosion continued, exposing the now petrified logs. The colours of these logs are of an amazing variety, ranging from white over grey to red, with all kinds of hues in between. This is due to impurities in the quartz: red, orange, yellow and purple indicate iron oxides, black and grey manganese oxides, and white is pure quartz. (I garnered all of these facts from the signs in Crystal Forest)

Following the rangers recommendations we next stopped at Blue Mesa, an area not unlike our Alberta badlands near Drumheller, where we walked the mile-long paved trail.

The last stop, shortly before leaving the park again, was at the northern end, aptly called Painted Desert. The late afternoon light was especially advantageous to view it, though it would have been even more impressive closer to sunset. Since the park closes at five, however, we didn't get to wait that long.

I-40 took us to our night's destination at Chambers, the starting point for yesterday's visit to Canyon de Chelly – which I will talk about after our day's adventures at Canyonlands NP.