PERTRIFIED FOREST AND PAINTED DESERT NATIONAL PARK IN AZ.

 We packed up and headed for the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert.  Before we enter the Forest, we stop at Jim Gray’s Petrified Wood Company – this is like a museum – lots of petrified wood products.  The petrified wood you see today was formed 50 to 200 million years ago.  It is made up of trees that were buried in mud, sand or volcanic ash ages ago and turned to stone through the action caused by water seeping through the mud and sand into the logs.  There it filled the empty cells of the decaying wood with mineral matter until the whole structure became solid stone. After entering the forest, we stop at the Rainbow Forest Museum.  We see fossils of the first dinosaurs to roam North America and Old Faithful, a petrified tree stump with the large diameter of 10 feet.  It is hard to believe that this petrified wood is so beautiful with all the different colors that you see that come from all the mineral deposits.  The Painted Desert is beautiful with all it red coloring.

This has been on my list to visit for a long time.  Just haven't made it happen yet.  Maybe soon.

Bill