Petrified Forest National Park

Scattered across the badlands of northeastern Arizona lie logs of solid quartz, the remains of conifers that grew about 225 million years ago in the Late Triassic, when the region sat near the equator. Rivers buried the trees in sediment rich in volcanic ash, and silica slowly replaced the wood, preserving bark and growth rings in bands of red, yellow and purple. The same rocks of the Chinle Formation yield fossils of early dinosaurs, crocodile-like phytosaurs and giant amphibians, making the park a key window on the dawn of the dinosaur age.

President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906 after souvenir hunters and gem collectors began hauling away the logs. It became a national park on December 9, 1962, and now covers about 346 square miles (896 km²), including part of the Painted Desert. It is the only national park that contains a stretch of historic Route 66. Visitors can see Puebloan ruins, more than 650 petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock, and the Painted Desert Inn, a National Historic Landmark.

• Painted Desert
  Arizona’s banded badlands between the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest contains part of
• Route 66
  The "Mother Road" from Chicago to the Pacific contains part of
• Arizona
  The Grand Canyon State, admitted 1912 located in
• The Colorado Plateau
  The high red-rock heart of the Southwest part of
• Painted Desert
  Arizona’s banded badlands between the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest protects
• Grand Canyon National Park
  The park protecting Arizona's mile-deep gorge related