Petrified forest

Calling it a forest gave us the wrong impression. The petrified trees are all laying on the ground, left there about 225 million years ago during the Late Triassic period.

From a family-friendly loop through White Sands to a cave-laden climb in the Smokies, these are 63 of the best hikes in the U.S. national park system.

Photograph by Wanghan Li. Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

What Petrified Forest National Park lacks in celebrity status, it more than makes up for in unique moonscape terrain, mysterious fossilized wood, and aura of days gone by.

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

Awe-inspiring — and probably way less crowded, too.

Colorful sedimentary badland hills, flat-topped mesas, & sculptured buttes of the Chinle Formation exposing fossils & petrified wood - Petrified Forest National Park's Photo