[WIND. GUITAR PLUCKING]
Petrified forest fieldnotes. May 30th.
[GUITAR and WIND]
We pass over Cretaceous limestones and sandstones. And the massive sands of the early Jurassic Glenn Canyon Group.
Walking out to Kachina Point and looking into the Painted Desert
I am struck by how bright and vibrant the rocks are at Petrified Forest.
Pink, green and yellow clays with a popcorn texture.
The result of years of swelling after monsoon rains.
[WIND and DISTANT THUNDER. GUITAR.]
[HAMMERING SOUND ON ROCK]
My name is Adam Marsh and I am a paleontologist researching at Petrified Forest National Park.
ADAM: It was like a basket of v shaped bones.
At least in the paleontologist perspective, the wilderness allows a history to be preserved.
[NATURAL SOUNDS and GUITAR]
I am excited to begin prospecting and collecting fossils. It's going to be very different from my past experiences.
The petrified wood is everywhere. It's going to take time to train my eyes to see the bone among the piles of ancient logs
[GUITAR. RAVEN CALL. WIND]
The wilderness is a sort of museum, we just don't know what's in there.
I wanted to be a paleontologist because every little kid loves dinosaurs
and it just blows people's minds that there are these animals
that aren't around anymore, that looked like this.
And they're huge. And they can eat you or step on you or whatever.
And some people always have that in their heart, and the difference is that some of us don't grow out of it.
[GUITAR. WIND.]
I can follow the bones down the hill. Down the rock column and back in time.
It's exciting to think about what we might find this summer, chasing bones through the late Triassic.
ADAM: Here's a bigger chunk. Just broken bone.
It's incredibly exhilarating to find a bone. To find something that nobody has seen
that hasn't seen the light of day since it was buried in this case 223 million years ago.
[WIND. GUITAR. NATURAL SOUNDS]
You have to be aware that you are in a wilderness area
and the fossils from that area are a natural resource.
[GUITAR]
There's 20 million years of time from the bottom to the top of the rock in the park.
So you come out here and you say, where am I? When am I?
[GUITAR]
That's what I love sometimes about being out here.
Because it really forces you to acknowledge the fact that you are a part of the world around you.
You're not removed from it, you're not separated from it. You are a part of it.
[GUITAR. WIND.]
It's overwhelming to consider the sheer volume of rock and the surface area of exposure
that has been sculpted after years of erosion. I see this especially in the wilderness area.
[NATURAL SOUNDS. WIND. GUITAR]
It's a really cool feeling to be in the wilderness and say
I could be the only person in the last 50 years to see this in this scenery.
Out here is where you do the research. Out here is where you find the exciting things.