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Visiting Petrified Forest National Park and wondering what there is to see and what stops are worth it? We venture from South to North and break up the overlooks and trails to help you plan your trip.
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Welcome to the second in our four-part series covering Petrified Forest National Park. In this episode, we continue north from the South Entrance and see the dense collection of petrified wood at Jasper Forest, peer at the Agate Bridge, and finally stop at some overlooks of Blue Mesa ending with a short hike down into the mesa itself.
Petrified Forest National Park is located in Northeast Arizona near Interstate 40 east of the town of Holbrook. The park is filled with excellent examples of petrified wood dating back about 220 million years. The process of petrification occurred when the now extinct trees toppled over into a river and were buried under layers of silt, mud, sand, and volcanic ash. The minerals from these layers, combined with the water, saturated the trees and bonded with the wood cells eventually replacing the wood.
Our first stop is to Jasper Forest, one of the densest collections of petrified wood in the park. As large as the number of specimens is, imagine it with even more examples. Throughout time, pieces of the petrified wood have found their way into the hands (as well as carts and buggies) of visitors. In fact, it is this theft of pieces that aided in the establishment of Petrified Forest National Park as a national monument in 1906.
Next, we head over to Agate Bridge, a 110-foot petrified log that has formed a bridge after centuries of erosion by water washed away the soil from under it. Reinforcement had to be constructed over time to keep the massive and incredibly heavy piece of petrified wood safe but if you stand at the right angle you can imagine what this wonder looks like spanning the gap. Walking across it is forbidden now but can you imagine what it must have been like at one time?
Finally, we end off looking at a number of overlooks at Blue Mesa. Here things are starting to look a lot different from the landscape further south. Fewer petrified logs are seen and instead, colorful hills begin to rise from the desert ground. You are now entering the badlands area of the park. The views are spectacular as you gaze out onto striped layers of purples, blues, greens, and greys. A lot of time (220 million years!) have created these hills. To end things off, we dip down into the badlands and stroll through a 1-mile trail that loops next to these impressive layers.
VIDEO FILMED: 07/03/2020
▬▬ R E L A T E D V I D E O S ▬▬
⚪ Hiking Bell Rock - • HIKING BELL ROCK | Cla...
⚪ Episode 1 - • PETRIFIED FOREST NATIO...
▬▬ L O C A T I O N I N F O ▬▬
⚪ Petrified Forest National Park - www.nps.gov/pe...
⚪ Directions to Petrified Forest National Park - goo.gl/maps/nY...
▬▬ T I M E S T A M P S ▬▬
00:00 Intro
00:38 Jasper Forest
01:53 Agate Bridge
05:00 Blue Mesa Overlooks
09:10 Blue Mesa Hike
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Welcome to the Cactus Atlas! We are Glenn and Amy and invite you to join us as we visit all sorts of locations across the American West. We tour both natural and man-made attractions.
Our base of operations is in the Phoenix, AZ area. We do a lot of hiking and day trips as well as campground reviews and hope that we will be a great resource if you are planning a trip to the American West. We also hope to delight you with our exciting adventures!