Petrified Forest, Arizona

Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay

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One of the few places you can drive under a National Park is I-40 in Arizona.

Chinle Point

	Below: Chinle Point looks out over the appropriately named Painted Desert.

Nizhoni Point

	This mesa is capped by a thin veneer of volcanic rock. Below: close-ups of the lava flow.

Views On the Way to Blue Mesa

Blue Mesa

	Blue Mesa is named for a distinctive blue-gray layer of weathered volcanic ash.
	Left and below: views from the eastern end of Blue Mesa
	Left and below: the north side of the loop looks out across a colorfully banded canyon.
	Left and below: numerous logs are well exposed.

Agate Bridge

	Agate Bridge is a log over a gully that forms a natural bridge. The concrete underneath, not so natural. Nowadays the log would simply be allowed to collapse naturally.
	Left and below: cross-bedding in the sandstone.
	Views from Agate Bridge

South Entrance

	Petrified wood from various states. Except half of it isn't. It's schist or mylonite.
	Dude, that is not petrified wood! That is vesicular basalt! Below: numerous logs are exposed around the visitor center.
	Dinosaurs frequented the area.
	Left and below: Close-ups of the wood.
	Left: The Teepees

Newspaper Rock

Petroglyphs pecked into desert pavement

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Created 22 July 2012, Last Update 06 June 2020