National Park - Petrified Forest National Park

This August, the US National Park Service will be celebrating its centennial anniversary. It is as the filmmaker Ken Burns said, America’s best idea. It was in a national park that I start to realize and appreciate how beautiful and magnificent our planet is.  So in conjunction with this celebration, I thought that it is appropriate that I write about my visits to the national parks. 

Prior to 2008, I have never been to a national park before. Not even back home in Malaysia. It was by chance on our journey from Kansas to California that we stopped by the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. Honestly, I have no clue about national parks at all and I was never a nature or outdoorsy person. So there I was for my first ever national park visit.  For some reason, I got Petrified Forest and Sequoia National Park confused (totally clueless… I heard people talking about large, gigantic trees before and thought it was Petrified Forest since it has the word FOREST in it. Duh!), and I was expecting to see giant trees instead of fossilized trees. Naturally, I was a bit disappointed but that didn’t last long. Petrified Forest was just different. I do not know where else can you find logs from trees from the Late Triassic period.

Welcoming sign at the main entrance

Painted Desert Visitor Center

An exhibit of fossilized log 

This place is probably a heaven for geologists and paleontologists.  I personally have not that much clue about the things I read at the visitor center.

Since it was very cold that December (that and the fact that we were short of time), we decided to just drive through the park. The drive through the park will take you about an hour and half (depending on how often you stop) with a distance of about 28 miles.  According to the park information, there are several trails available and from the looks of it, not very difficult ones. We did try the Long Logs trail for a while until we had to run back to the car as it was freezing cold and the wind was just too chilly.

 

Logs, lots of logs

  

Gloomy weather while we were there

  

Painted Desert Inn 

Petrified Forest National Park is a relatively small park and if you have a day to spare, you’d probably get to explore the park more extensively. I would have loved to walk the trails and see more of the unique landscape, maybe someday I will return to this park, with adequate winter clothing or in warmer months. But this park opens up my eyes of the wonders of nature and it made me fall in love with the national parks. So Petrified Forest, you will always have a special place in my heart. 

  

Paved trail 

  

Mz with the Giant Logs