Petrified Forest: a 200-million-year-old forest turned to stone

In north-east Arizona, the ground is strewn with tree trunks. They have bark, knots and growth rings. But they are made of stone, red, yellow and purple, and they gleam in the sun. All around is a desert of striped hills, the Painted Desert.

History and origins

More than 200 million years ago, this region was a tropical plain, covered in forests and criss-crossed by rivers. Giant trees fell, were swept away by floods and buried under mud and volcanic ash. Sealed off from the air, they didn’t rot. The silica in the water replaced the wood, cell by cell. Iron and manganese supplied the colours.

These rocks also hold fossils of giant reptiles and some of the earliest dinosaurs. Native American peoples lived here for centuries: they left villages and hundreds of carvings. The site was protected in 1906 and became a national park in 1962.

What to do there

• The Painted Desert: in the north, a series of overlooks onto red, pink and lavender hills, as far as the eye can see. The colours are strongest in the morning and evening.
• Blue Mesa: a loop that drops down among hills streaked with blue, grey and purple, with pieces of petrified wood balanced on their pedestals.
• Crystal Forest: a paved trail among hundreds of logs, some of them filled with quartz crystals.
• Giant Logs and Long Logs: in the south, the biggest logs in the park. The most massive is nearly three metres across at the base.
• Newspaper Rock: rocks covered with more than 650 carvings, which you look at through a spotting scope from an overlook.
• Route 66: the park is the only one in the country to contain a stretch of the old road. The shell of a 1930s car marks its course.

Stories and good to know

• Every year the park receives, in the post, stones sent back by former visitors seized by remorse. Many enclose a letter recounting the misfortunes that have befallen them since.
• Petrified wood is almost as hard as quartz. It breaks cleanly, as if it had been sawn.
• The Painted Desert Inn, a former Route 66 inn with ochre walls, can be visited for free.

Practical information for your road trip

• Pass: the America the Beautiful pass covers the entrance fee. Everything is explained in our guide to the national parks pass.
• Getting there: the north entrance is on Interstate 40, 30 minutes from Holbrook. You drive through the park and come out at the south, or the other way round, without retracing your steps.
• Opening hours: the park is only open during the day, and the gates close in the late afternoon. Check the time as you go in. Arizona doesn’t change its clocks in summer.
• On site: a restaurant and a fuel pump at the north entrance.
• Where to stay: in Holbrook, where you can spend the night in a motel of concrete wigwams on Route 66.
• Combine it with: Route 66, Canyon de Chelly, two hours to the north, or the Grand Canyon.