Petrified?

Have you ever been so scared you just froze?

Perhaps, this is what happened to the trees over 200 million years ago when they encountered the dinosaurs? Needless to say, our last stop at Petrified Forest National Park covered 200 million years of history from a cultural, a geological and a paleontology perspective.

Trees that were alive at the dawn of the dinosaurs – perhaps, scared to stone when they saw the first ones?

The Blue Mesa Member, which is approximately 220-225 million years old shows beautiful blue, purple, and white banding within the Chinle Formation.

A walk through Blue Mesa showing the colorful layers of the Chinle formation

And then on to the Crystal Forest where crystalized tree trunks lay about the desert show casing their beautiful colors.

Petrified tree turns into colorful agate and crystal stone.

Crystalline center of the old tree trunk.

The most telling photo was that of more modern history, a section of Old Route 66. As this photo shows, we’d reached the end of the road and thus the end of our vacation.