Moominmama's Adventures: Petrified Forest National Park

 

In which Moominmama confronts a geological log jam and attempts to read Newspaper Rock...

The story here starts over 200 million years ago when this part of Arizona, now Petrified Forest National Park, had a climate like Costa Rica. And a river ran through it. 

Giant conifers grew along the river and when the sandy banks eroded, some of the trees fell into the water. Sometimes there were enough of them to catch on each other and create a log jam. In time, the silt washed over and buried them. 

Without oxygen, fungus or bugs to break them down, the silica from the silt crept into the woody veins and corners. It hardened into the exact shape of the downed tree.

Voila, a petrified forest, albeit on the ground. The one in Arizona is not unique, but it's one of the largest in the world. And the fossils are unbelievably realistic, down to the knots and bark of their source. 

One of the giveaways, however, is that the logs often look as if they've been sliced by a chainsaw. There are clean breaks where a tree would normally splinter. This is how quartz breaks, because the silica has turned into quartz.

The other giveaway is that, in many cases, the logs are more varied in color than you might expect. Some of the minerals have oxidized, creating a distinct red. Still other minerals add bits of gold, white, black or green. This is partly because there are so many different layers of soil in this area, creating what's called a badlands. 

I thought the badlands were a place in South Dakota! But it turns out it refers to how certain landscapes are formed. "A badland is an area of soft rock strata that is cut and eroded into many gullies and irregular shapes where vegetation cannot take hold."

To the right is an area at one of the lowest points in the park. It shows the layers of soil laid down over millions of year. These eroding layers, dating back to the late Triassic, also sealed in many dinosaur fossils.

Moominmama had hoped to visit Petrified Forest National Park much earlier in her travels, prior to making my way to Phoenix, but bad weather intervened. I was lucky to be able to backtrack east for a day, once I reached Flagstaff.

Before reaching Flagstaff, however, Moominmama took at detour and decided to free-camp on Bureau of Land Management land near the Agua Fria Monument at about 3,000 feet of elevation instead of going all the way up to the 7,000 feet of Flagstaff. This kept me at above-freezing temperatures during a particularly cold night.

But free camping on federal land comes without amenities and requires travel on dirt roads that are rarely well maintained. Since Moominmama does not have a trailer equipped for "overlanding," I need to be cautious about any situation requiring high ground clearance.

This spot was not too far off the highway, so I decided to risk it. The road did turn out to be nasty, but I also couldn't turn around! When I did manage to reverse directions, at a wider point, I was close to an available campsite and pulled in.

About a half-mile further up the muddy dirt road was a trailhead for Badger Springs, a spritely waterway that feeds into the Agua Fria River. I had time for a hike, so I headed out.

And what a lovely surprise! Not only was it a nice hike, but this land featured ancient petroglyphs and enabled me to get closer to these chiseled human symbols than I ever have! 

I could easily have touched them -- but didn't as the oil on my hands could eventually damage them.

When I visited the Petrified Forest a few days later, I saw even more petroglyphs and learned about some of the different interpretations. Is this a representation from a Hopi legend, in which a giant bird descends to snatch away badly behaving children? Or is this a symbol of the Zuni Crane clan united with the Frog clan? 

Or it could be a picture of an ibis, a bird that would have been common in the area long ago, and who enjoyed a tasty frog for a meal. Are the dots below water droplets? 

No one today knows for sure. But some of the symbols nearby have astronomical connections, as one spiral low on a rock face catches a shard of light through a nearby stone crack exactly at the summer solstice. Petrified Forest National Park has a remarkable collection of petroglyphs including "Newspaper Rock," so named because it's packed full of images and probably conveyed all kinds of information to the people of that long-ago time. But it is kept at a distance from park-goers to protect it, so Moominmama was grateful for the chance she'd had to see some up close at Badger Springs. 

Despite all the caution taken to avoid freezing temperatures, Moominmama has remained in Flagstaff for the week. The Moominhouse water tank can handle short periods of time in the cold here at 7,000 feet. However, go another thousand feet up and it turns out it's much colder and thick with snow!

Driving just a half-hour uphill brought me to the Flagstaff Nordic Center and allowed me to unpack my cross-country skis! I was able to make up briefly for losing out on late winter snow in New Hampshire. This was a thrill! And while most of the skiing was through Ponderosa pine, I glided through a few stands of Aspen trees, which were stunning against the deep blue sky!