Road Trip West 3, Petrified Forest
Richard Rathe, April 2026 (Birds, Flowers, History)
The next day I had a three hour drive to my next destination—Petrified Forest National Park. The southern entrance is less used than the north but two of he major hiking trails are there: Crystal Forest & Blue Mesa. Unfortunately there is no trail to Newspaper Rock—a major Petroglyph site. It was cold and windy, but apparently I came at a good time to see the many desert flowers in bloom. 🙂
I stopped and took the short hike thru the Crystal Forest area. The terrain is a rolling plateau with huge tree trunks eroding out of the loose gravel surface. These trunks appear to be cut and ready to split into firewood.
Several tall tree trunks remained intact so you could see how tall they had been when they were alive.
There were so many beautiful cross-sections I got tired of photographing them!
At one point I spotted movement amongst the trees and got a picture of a Horned Lark at the extreme range of my camera. I also met a Raven in one of the parking areas.
Moving north, the next hiking area was Blue Mesa. I visited the various overlooks but did not descend the trail for lack of time.
This area had the most wildflower diversity I found. I spent some time trying to photograph them. Harder than you'd think due to the wind and fragile surfaces.
There were Native American ruins in the Park as well as several Petroglyph panels.
The soutern Visitor Center has a small by very well curated museum with fossils (some are casts) of the fauna that lived in the area millions of years ago.
It was mid to late afternoon by the time I got to the Old Highway 66
marker and crossed the interstate into the northern part of the park. I decided to hit the road without exploring this part of the Park.
(click any image to view or advance)
I love this bit of detail!
Some of you may be familiar with scientists giving their discoveries whimsical names. For example there is the INDY gene—short for I'm Not Dead Yet
, a longevity gene. (Look it up!)
Here's another one documented on a roadside sign…
Funcusvermis was named after the song Funky Worm
by the Ohio Players. 🙂
Note that the actual song appears to be a novelty story set to music.