Petrified Forest

 As we drive west through Arizona we always take a small detour to go on the loop through the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest.  On this day there had been some recent rain, so, the Painted Desert portion of the loop was unusually colorful and bright.

Bright colors after rainfall.

We had to stop again and again as both the landscape and the coloring changed as we progressed along our way.  There is almost no one else around this time of year and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Every curve brings a different view.

Finally we arrived at the Petrified Forest end of the loop.  At the visitor center there are fossil remains of the creatures who lived here when the trees were living.  It was a place of moisture, ferns, and bogs;  hard to imaging as we stand in the desert of today.

That was one big tree!

We walked around and marveled at the vast landscape of petrified tree remains.  This was a giant forest with huge trees in its day.  The “wood” colors now are varied and beautiful; always worth a visit!

They go on and on.