In this episode we visit Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The petrified
trees are massive and more numerous than we've seen in any other place. They're impressive,
but the Blue Mesa is maybe even more so. Add the Painted Desert and this is a must-see park.
We got up first thing in the morning to come check out Petrified Forest National Park.
We're especially excited to come see this place today because way back in 2013 we actually tried
to visit here, but it coincided with a government shutdown at the time and we couldn't get in. So,
many years later, here we are. We're finally gonna go check it out. We're at the south entrance,
and we're just gonna drive up along this road stopping at the Giant Logs first. It's a 28 mile
road through the park and lots of stops along the way. Right next to the visitor center is the trail
for Giant Logs. So we parked right in front of the visitor center, and we're gonna walk right
next to the building to start this 0.4 mile hike. And the interesting thing about this one: it has
some of the largest logs in the park and one in particular is 10 feet wide at its base.
So let's go check that one out. I mean we haven't even walked down the trail and there's already
petrified logs laying around. They're just all over the hillside here. I guess I didn't know
what to expect, because we've been to other places where we have seen petrified logs, and there's
you know one little one laying here, one little one laying there, and they're all fenced off.
So just to see them littering the hillside here, essentially,
it's amazing. And I already see the big one at the top of the hill. So I can't wait to see that one.
Giant logs, no joke. These are huge! Just, you know, looking at the kids for scale...
next to this thing. Right? That's a pretty big log isn't it? Off you go. This one is called Old
Faithful, and it's the largest of the logs here on the Giant Log Trail. And Old Faithful is 10 feet
wide at the base here. And what I find really interesting is, if you've been to let's say
Yosemite or maybe somewhere on the Olympic Coast, you've seen trees that have fallen over and you
see the big root ball in the bottom and the mass of the roots and you can stand amongst them.
And just, you really can see it here, even though this you know petrified log,
totally different consistency now than those. This is amazing, just to, to picture what that
root ball used to look like and to stand here in front of it the way you might anywhere else.
So you can really see the crystallized deposits in this log here. And we're about to head to
the next trail called Crystal Forest where apparently you can see the best specimens
of some of these beautiful crystalline structures in the logs. So, let's go check that out now.
We just parked at the Crystal Forest Trailhead, and we're about to get started on this hike.
Jump. This is a 0.8 mile hike, so another short one. I like that. Yeah. The scenery
out here is just spectacular. It's our first petrified wood specimen of the hike.
Right. Smaller than the ones at the Giant Logs Trail, but I see some larger ones up ahead. But
I want to point out that I already feel like this one is more orangey than the
ones we saw on the other trail. Imagine this used to be a lush prehistoric rainforest.
Mind-boggling to consider what this used to look like, in a lush forested area and now um arid.
Desert. Not lush. It's particularly striking with the sun shining right on it. It
really makes it kind of glow and sparkle. We were just remarking about how it looks like
someone just chopped up a bunch of wood and just sort of strewn it about the desert here. It's
really interesting. If you were just looking at it coming up on it you really would think
it's wood until you get closer and you see how sparkly it is. The bark itself you know
the fossilized remnants of the bark, it looks like bark. It is so intricate. The details remain,
so. Yeah. It's really neat to see, and I'm not sure why it breaks apart the way it does except
you know the forces of nature. You know I think it's funny I've heard this place described as
just a bunch of rocks in the desert but I mean you know like... It's true, I guess. It is kind of a
lot more interesting than that. Yeah. I think what makes it so much more is just like Christine was
saying how intricate everything is when you look at it closely. Yeah and to use your imagination
a little bit like we were talking about at the sign a minute ago what this used to look like.
It always ends up like this. Inevitably. Inevitably yep.
From a distance this great big long one over here looks like a real tree that's still made
out of wood and not rock. I think that's one of the longest ones we've seen so far.
Here you can really see the rings on the tree and all the different layers. I think that's
really fascinating about trees, that you can tell things about the environment, um the weather,
the precipitation, all that stuff by you know the spacing between the rings and all
of that. I'm not an arborist. That's probably the extent of you know what I know about trees,
but I think that's really neat. So I don't think we've said much about how petrified
wood is formed. So if you don't know, our understanding is that at some point these trees
fell over. Over time they were covered by sediment. They soaked in water and minerals,
silica, and over time hardened into quartz. And all of the different
colors, it's dependent on the type of minerals found in the area. And so you have this
beautiful variation of the different colors. If I didn't get any of that right, forgive me.
That's what I can remember from what I read, and if you have any other interesting information
to add about petrified wood that you know, leave it in the comments below.
Here it describes the process that I mentioned, which... vindicated! I think I pretty much got
it right. Oh, and we said why does it look like all the wood has been cut?
Because the heavy quartz log eventually cracks and breaks apart and they break perpendicular to the
length of the log and they compare it to brittle chalk. So it definitely looks like they are cut.
We're not the only ones that thought that. That's a thing. That's it for the Crystal Forest Loop.
We're gonna head on down to the Blue Mesa which is an entirely different kind of landscape.
And I think for the most part we're gonna leave the petrified woods behind from here.
Wow guys. Is this good or what?
Let's go! Made it to the trailhead. Looks like it's about a mile loop around. The first part is
supposedly a little bit steeper, and the colors are amazing! I mean the blue bentonite clay
is unlike anything else we've seen in this park so far. We're pretty excited to go check it out.
Here's the steeper downhill .What goes down must come back up.
Look at those colors. It's like purple-gray, blue-gray,
and these striations all the way throughout. Wow.
This is all very dry and cracked and crumbly, but you can see
the color striations right here already as you move up.
It's really neat to look at it close up, because it looks looks a little different from far away.
These distinct layers in the clay are so
neat.
So we would definitely highly recommend the Blue Mesa Trail. The petrified wood is the namesake
of the park and it's so interesting, but this is the most scenic. So come here. Do this loop.
Yeah. You won't regret it. No you won't. Even if this is the only thing you did in the park,
you still wouldn't regret it. This is just gorgeous out here. Yeah! If you can only do
one thing as you're driving through, do this because there are also petrified logs here.
They're not the huge ones, but the petrified wood is all over the place so you will get both.
Definitely come and check this particular one out. Blue Mesa is amazing. For sure. Now we're going to
complete the last part of the loop and hike back up. So we'll see you at some point along the way,
maybe at the top, maybe out of breath. Yeah. Probably out of breath. Here we go.
Well we're definitely out of breath coming up the hill. Well this guy
carried Nathan. And I basically had a dead weight on my arm that I was pulling up.
No the kids did great. The last part, you know, it's a little tough. It's not a long uphill.
No. And now we're gonna head back to the truck and we have one more hike that we want to do.
I hear this is gonna be a good one so stick around. We're heading into the north side
of the park now, not far. So we'll see you when we get there. See you there.
So this is Tawa Point right here. And we are on the Painted Desert Rim Trail. And this is what
we wanted to show you guys because we are right on the rim, and we have these gorgeous views of the
red Painted Desert. And the trail actually goes from here all the way down to Kachina
Point. You can see the old inn right there, and you can take this all the way along the rim,
all the way there, or all the way back. I think back and forth is a mile. And we decided,
we have gorgeous views from right here, so we don't actually need to walk the Rim Trail.
But we're gonna stay here for a while and enjoy the view before we head out of the park.
Thanks for coming along with us to explore Petrified Forest National Park. It's been a
full day, and that wraps it up for us. Petrified logs, Blue Mesa, Rim Rock Trail, Painted Desert,
I mean what more could you want. Yeah. That was a full day. So we hope you enjoyed it,
and we hope to see you on the next adventure. Bye. Bye. Make sure to subscribe, and hit the
notification bell so that you're notified the next time we release a travel video. See you soon.
We got up first thing in the morning to come check out nat... Nope.
…what this used to look like... Kids come out of there please.
Don't uh walk yourself backwards off a cliff. I know. I read something on one
of those other signs. I'm not doing a great job of explaining it, so maybe I'll do a voice over here.