Petrified Forest

Petrified Forest National Park is located in eastern Arizona and is famous for its petrified wood, most of which is from ~225 million years ago.

The Rainbow Forest Museum near the south entrance has some fun exhibits.

The phytosaur is the most common fossil found in the Petrified Forest.

In life it was over 17 feet and weighed over a ton.

The placerias hesternus was a reptile that was very similar to a mammal.

The petrified wood formed when fallen trees fell into a river channel and were buried beneath silt. Over time, silica enriched groundwater percolated through the wood, replacing the molecules, which made a quartz replica.

The Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs are located in the center of the park. They were created sometime between 500 and 1000 years ago by ancestral Puebloans.

The Painted Desert Inn was a small hotel in the park that is now a museum.

It had six rooms in the 1920s and 30s.

It also had great views of the Painted Desert.