Petrified Forest/Painted Desert

From Williams we traveled east to Holbrook, AZ to see the Petrified Forest National Park. The weather improved, although temperature is telling us that it's fall, not summer. I don't know what I expected to see at the Petrified Forest, but we started at the visitor's center, and learned that the whole area had been a tropical forest millions of years ago. The museum there had several reconstructed skeletons of prehistoric animals found in the area. As an inland sea covered the forests, the trees settled to the bottom, and became infused with the minerals in the water. The result was "wood turned to stone"

This log was one of the largest we saw - that's Peg near the end of it.

There were acres of smaller pieces like the ones shown here. We were told that this is the largest concentration of petrified trees in the world.

Traveleing north about 15 miles, another visitor's center announces the Painted Desert. This is an area where many of the old western movies were shot. These mountains are typical of the scenery along the way

The canyon is viewed from the top rim, and the colors are much richer than these pictures can show. The views are spectacular.