National Park Service at 100: Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

Imagine seeing a tree that is about 225 million years old.

You will if you visit the Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, AZ.

My daughter Mallory and I took a drive through the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert during our road trip through northern Arizona.

The fossilized trees are part of the Late Triassic period. The park area was once woodlands before floods and volcano ash eventually covered the trees and started the fossilization process.

The park has a 28-mile scenic route that runs through the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. There are pull-offs, which allow you an opportunity to either walk short trails or check out scenic overlooks.

Prior to arriving at the park, we drove through Holbrook, where the western entrance is located. We had to make a stop on our way through town as Mallory saw dinosaurs at an old store. The models were lined up, so we took a few photos.

Just outside the National Park is a “visitor” center. It’s actually a souvenir shop. Dinosaur models sit on either side of the road, to help celebrate the park’s history.

The first stop inside the park was the official visitor’s center. There is a nice trail that introduces visitors to the fossilized logs and wood.

A few miles down the road is the Crystal Forest. Logs are strewn about in the valley. In the background are Badlands. A large rock formation, called The Battleship, sits just west of the Crystal Forest.

We drove along the rest of the route. Because we had a commitment to get to the Four Corners Monument, we skipped some of the park attractions, such as the Blue Mesa and Newspaper Rock. Newspaper Rock is home to petroglyphs. We’ve seen petroglyphs on other vacations, so we were OK.

We did stop at the Jasper Forest overlook. Logs are strewn through the valley, surrounded by bluffs.

The area is beautiful. It’s worth a drive through the park. Even if you don’t stop at every pull-off, you will enjoy the park.

One stop we had to make was at a rock formation called the Teepees. The rocks, obviously, resemble teepees.

We moved on to the Painted Desert. The desert takes up about six miles of the National Park. We thought it was interesting that there were so many overlooks for such a short drive. We agreed 3-4 total would have been reasonable.

The desert is the result of years of volcanic activity, floods and earthquakes.

The desert was beautiful to visit. The layers of sediment give off a primarily red color.

For more information on the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, please visit the National Park Service website at http://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm.