Petrified Forest National Park – Two Trails One Road

Many rocks and minerals can be found in Arizona. Here are a few…

Fluorite that I dug out of the Arizona desert!

Herkimer Diamonds found in Payson, AZ

Arizona Purple Agate that was sliced nicely by Sweet Man on his rock saw. Then I polished it.

Arizona is proud of all its Rocks, Minerals and Gems. However, it’s proud of and well known for its Petrified Wood. A visit to the Petrified Forest National Park is a must… to see amazing fossilized wood (tree trunks.)

We drove through the Painted Desert National Park first.

As we entered into the Petrified Forest we came across more and more Petrified Wood.

A tree fell over and became a petrified wood natural bridge.

Millions of years ago this was a forest. Over time the forest was buried quickly by large amounts of sediment. Silica, minerals and such replaced the tree trunks which then turned them mostly into quartz, amethyst, and yellow citrine which is what the fossilized Petrified Wood is mainly made of.

It truly is amazing to see the Petrified Forest. No longer wood tree trunks but now rock.

You can not remove any of these beautiful specimens from the National Park. There are plenty of places around the Park that sell it.

We purchased this gorgeous piece from a nearby place and had the top side polished. We have it displayed in our back yard.

This is a piece I found in Joseph City that is 35 miles away from the Petrified Forest National Park. We went with our Rock and Mineral Club and had permission to remove petrified wood on this certain property. Because the soil was a different color… so was the Petrified Wood.

A friend of ours polishes Petrified Wood. He does a beautiful job! We have a piece displayed in our home. It’s so beautifully polished you can see my shadow in it.