Petrified Forest National Park

is an American national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the park covers about 346 square miles (900 square kilometres), encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colourful badlands.

The park’s headquarters is about 26 miles (42 km) east of Holbrook along Interstate 40 (I-40), which parallels the BNSF Railway’s Southern Transcon, the Puerco River, and historic U.S. Route 66, all crossing the park roughly east–west. The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962. The park received 644,922 recreational visitors in 2018.

Averaging about 5,400 feet (1,600 m) in elevation, the park has a dry windy climate with temperatures that vary from summer highs of about 100 °F (38 °C) to winter lows well below freezing. More than 400 species of plants, dominated by grasses such as bunchgrass, blue grama, and sacaton, are found in the park. Fauna include larger animals such as pronghorns, coyotes, and bobcats, many smaller animals, such as deer mice, snakes, lizards, seven kinds of amphibians, and more than 200 species of birds, some of which are permanent residents and many of which are migratory. About one third of the park is designated wilderness—50,260 acres (79 sq mi; 203 km²).

The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic Epoch, about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All of the park’s rock layers above the Chinle, except geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by wind and water. In addition to petrified logs, fossils found in the park have included Late Triassic ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and many other plants as well as fauna including giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large amphibians, and early dinosaurs. Palaeontologists have been unearthing and studying the park’s fossils since the early 20th century.

My decision to drive over to California and then up the coast back to Vancouver made me feel a lot better, I had a destination again and the idea of driving to Mexico and eventually even further down had stressed me out quite a bit.

This lightened my mood and it was like a big rock fell off my back, after all Eddie wasn’t the youngest anymore and it was hard to predict how far he could still wanted to go, totally understandable if he decided to retire in the south. The electronics were playing a bit crazy, the lights were a problem and other little things here and there, but most importantly, the engine was running like a charm. Pretty good considering the speedometer had stopped counting at 235.000km. The next destination required a big move north-west again, back into the middle of nowhere, back to canyons, mountains, passes and 6% drops for 10km. It basically took me back to the area around Monument Valley again, this time coming from the south instead of the north. The 400km drive took a whole day, with quite a few unexpected climbs and drops on the way. For once my calculations were right, I made it to the park at the perfect time, I rolled in just before sunset. This was one of the most remote parks I had visited, it literally was in the middle of nowhere, so remote and so unfrequented that it was allowed to camp in the parking lot just outside the front gate, next to the gift shop. There was a small village called Holbrook a couple of kilometers outside the park. I stocked up on food before I left so there was no need to visit again.

The park was of the bigger kind, probably took an hour driving the road that led through it. I used my first visit to figure out the better locations for the next day.

Once again my expectations for the park were pretty low and the surprise was positive. It might have been the sunset I was able to whiteness on the second day, but the park was just awesome. Hard to explain what made it that great, the mesas weren’t that high and the canyons that deep, I would say it was the far views and the intense colors that made this place extraordinary, beige, reds going into deep purples and blues, stunning. It was possibly to look into the far distance as well, the view wasn’t blocked off by mountains in the foreground. I spent the whole second day in the park, so there was a lot of time to kill in-between sunrise and sunset. I set up on a ridge overlooking a valley, just hung around and got out of the car every now and then to take a couple of photos in between rainstorms. The weather was very mixed that day with heavy rains following short phases of sunshine. It was great to observe the clouds raining down on the valley, not being able to see further than a kilometer for a while and then seeing it change back to sunshine and distant views later.

It was well worth lounging around the park for the day, with the sunset that was about to follow, it’s in the top 10 of my favorite sunsets of all time for sure.

I was already on my way back to the main gate, the park closed at around five, when I saw the colors in the sky become more intense by the minute, so I took a detour to one of the closest viewpoints nearby, climbed the few stairs to the top and wow, an absolute stunning sunset, I didn’t know where to point the camera first, every direction was a winner. I had to act quickly as the park ranger at the bottom wildly signaled me that I had to leave, but I took my time and it seemed as if he understood.