There are 24 National Park Service (NPS) units in Arizona including three national parks (Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Saguaro), plus another four national monuments administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). On our trip, we have visited all three national parks, boondocked on BLM property and have visited four state parks and stayed at one county regional park. We have enjoyed visiting Arizona.
As we travel slowly back to Virginia, the Petrified Forest National Park is on our route. It is located in the painted desert in the northeastern part of the state along I-40.
This post is a National Geographic Moment (Educational for the grandkids)
Park Info:
The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. In addition to petrified logs, fossils found in the park have included Late Triassic ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and many other plants as well as fauna including giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large amphibians, and early dinosaurs.
The park’s earliest human inhabitants arrived at least 8,000 years ago. By about 2,000 years ago, they were growing corn in the area and shortly thereafter building pit houses in what would become the park. Later inhabitants built above-ground dwellings called pueblo. Although a changing climate caused the last of the park’s pueblos to be abandoned by about 1400 AC, more than 600 archeological sites, including petroglyphs, have been discovered in the park. In the 16th century, Spanish explorers visited the area, and by the mid-19th century a U.S. team had surveyed an east–west route through the area where the park is now located and noted the petrified wood. Later, roads and a railway followed similar routes and gave rise to tourism and, before the park was protected, to large-scale removal of fossils. Theft of petrified wood remains a problem in the 21st century.
Definition:
Petroglyphs are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, or carving, as a form of rock art. Petroglyphs are found world-wide, and are often associated with prehistoric peoples.
In our hiking we encountered some petroglyphs. One area that was very interesting to me was the summer solstice marker. The write up for this site explains that the human inhabitance were desperate for growing food. They needed something to tell them when to plant and they came up with this summer solstice marker. They did not have a spoken or written language but they were able to come up with marker. I said Wow.
For about two weeks around June 21, an interaction of light and shadow passes across the rings of this small, circular design as the sun rises. Most of the petroglyphs in Petrified Forest National Park are thought to be between 650 and 2,000 years old.
We are staying at:
OK RV Park in Holbrook, Az. We paid $34.50 with a Good Sams Membership discount. We have 50amp electrical, water, sewer, cable TV and Wifi (very good). This place is nice and clean. Well managed. It is a gravel parking lot for sites but nicely done. We would stay here again.
