Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park is about 100 miles east of Flagstaff.  This was one of the parks I had heard of, but didn't realize exactly where it was until we saw it on the map.  And, since it was on the way to where ever we were headed at the time, we decided to stop by.  As I have mentioned previously, it was one of those parks we thought was good for a couple of hours and ended up there for an entire day.

Hard to image that this 'rock' was once a live tree.

The largest petrified tree in the park.

A very barren landscape.

This one was at least 40' long.

Only a few were as colorful as this one.

A panorama of the park looking south.

A collared lizard. It did not move the whole time I was taking its picture.

I guess it was waiting for me to take this side shot.

One of his buddies further down the trail.

One of the overlooks.

You can see one of the trails through this weird formation.

What they call a blue rock formation.

Another view of the landscape.

You have to use your imagination on this one. The ground in the middle is slightly raised.  From what a plaque said, this was once part of the original Route 66 that went through the park.