Petrified forest

Beautiful colors

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.

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.

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: famous for its out-of-this-world moon-like landscapes, colorful badlands, vibrant petrified logs, and incredible trails.

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

Petrified wood is one of nature's most intriguing phenomena—a fossilized remnant of ancient forests that tells a story millions of years old. Unlike typical fossils, which often preserve only the shape or impression of the