After crossing New Mexico and seeing amazing mountains and the cool city of Albuquerque, we entered Arizona to see Petrified Forest National Park. Against a backdrop of gray and red mudstone and clay formations are scattered thousands of fossilized tree trunks dating back 225 million years.
So much of the wood's texture is preserved that it's hard to believe when seeing them from a distance that they are in fact made of stone. The fossilized wood is amazingly colorful and beautiful, layered with crystals of red, green, white, purple and yellow.
In many places the trees are divided perfectly, as if they'd been cut with an axe. In other places, the entire length of a tree trunk is visible, still holding together.
We hiked around the forest, imagining this place as it must have been all those millions of years ago, when humid tropical forests covered the area.