Petrified Forest National Park

HOLBROOK, AZ

The Petrified Forest National Park is in eastern Arizona, about 1.5 hours east of Flagstaff. I remember learning about this as a kid, so I was excited to check it out.

According to Wikipedia (and not my memory of elementary-level history / science), the Petrified Forest is about 225 million years old.

Painted Desert

I followed the main road through the park, stopping at various vantage points. First, the Painted Desert Rim Trail.

Here are some shots of the petrified wood. They look like actual wood, but I knocked on them. Definitely rock.

Puerco Pueblo

I then stopped at the Puerco Pueblo, which includes petroglyphs and a partial excavation of a 100+ room village, occupied 1250-1380 AD.

I sometimes wonder if archaeologists thousands of years from now will dedicate their lives to studying our modern day graffiti. And what they will deduce from it.

Agate House

Here are pictures of a partially reconstructed 8-room Pueblan building, built almost entirely of petrified wood. Archaeologists believe this was built around 1050 AD and occupied through about 1300.

A sign at the site said the rooms likely had no doors or windows, and that people climbed ladders and entered the structures through holes in the wooden roofs. I can understand not having exterior windows or doors to improve insulation and defense, but doesn't it seem like there would be doors or passageways between rooms on the inside?

Call me a skeptic, but it just seems like this would have caused a lot of nagging back then.

"Babe, can you climb the ladder, scurry across the wooden roof without putting a foot through it (again), climb down the ladder into the room literally on the other side of this wall we are sitting against, and get me some more firewood?"

"Love of my life, I told you when you were building this you should have put a doorway here. You never listen to me. Go get the firewood yourself."

Or maybe they built one room at a time and climbing over walls seemed easier than knocking a hole in an existing wall. Probably the more logical scenario.

Either way ... here is a close up of the petrified wood. It's beautiful.

Blue Mesa

Hiked through the Blue Mesa badlands, named for the bluish bentonite clay. In person, you can see a bluish hue, but only if you aren't looking up. Nothing looks blue next to that gorgeous Arizona sky!