Petrified Forest

The petrified forest is a neat place. I think it would be an excellent place to come as a kid, because it is so interesting to see an everyday object so transformed by time. I thik it would spark an interest in science. In the visitor center there was an exhibit on dinosaurs that at one point inhabited the area. They had fossils that had been extracted from the land, some formed completely intack animals. There were many easily accessible trails with petrified logs. Sadly there were only a few of the smaller pieces because they are harder to preserve and throughout time people have without a doubt taken them. In the gift shop there were many examples of polished petrified wood, which is really beautiful. My favorite was of course the pieces labeled rainbow wood. Different metals make the varying colors while the wood is being turned to rock. At one point I think I would like bookends of petrified wood, but they were really expensive so not today. In the park the wood was in it’s natural untouched state, which was nice to see, but it wasn’t nearly as pretty. Most of the logs were a reddish-brown color. Some were breathtaking however. There were a few with yellow streaks, pink, orange, white, etc. Some even had crystals on them. There were a few trees almost entirely intact and they were not small trees either. One even had its root base. I couldn’t help but to wonder what scared these trees so badly. J/k.