black forest

I had the good fortune to spend two weeks in the Petrified Forest National Park on an assignment and can say without hesitation that it was one of the most amazing places I've ever visited. The name is misleading: the petrified wood is just one of many complex and compelling attractions, including fossils from the Late Triassic period (224-million years ago), prehistoric human sites (including Clovis points, petrographs and pictographs), the largest untrampled grassland in the US, the Badlands and the Painted Desert and exhibits. The trails--most of them are paved and just a mile or shorter--are ideal for all age groups and many are even wheel chair accessible.I visited the Grand Canyon during the same two week period, and while that is just so incredible to see, I preferred the accessibility and variety of the Petrified Forest NP. I strongly suggest you stay in Winslow (not Holbroke) at the historic Harvey hotel designed by Mary Colter and then spend ALL day several days in a row at the Petrified Forest. Go all along the park road (28 miles) and be amazed.

The Black Forest is really the northern part of Petrified Forest National Park, better known as the Painted Desert, and very handy from I-40. You can actually pull off the freeway and enjoy the visitors center, gift shop and restaurant without paying the entrance fee to get into the park, but there's also much to see just a few miles into the park. Don't miss the Painted Desert Inn, a National Historic Landmark. It was originally a lunch counter and trading post for early travelers on Route 66 until the park service bought it in 1936. The CCC rebuilt it in mission style and it reopened in 1940 as an inn. After the war, the Fred Harvey Company managed it as a visitors center and restaurant until 1963. It might have been demolished then, but for the murals done by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie, who also did the art in the Desert Watchtower in the Grand Canyon. It's now a museum and bookstore. You get great views of the Painted Desert from the inn, as well as from several viewpoints within a few miles. You can also take trails into the Painted Desert, but if you want to see lots of petrified logs, drive to the southern part of the park. Keep in mind the restaurant by the northern visitors center is the only real one in the park.

We toured the Petrified Forest in Arizona the same trip we made to the Grand Canyon in 2005 This park was simply breath taking. The colors, the size, and the abundance of petrified wood laying on the grounds of what use to be a forest turned desert. There was no charge, you could not pick up any of the petrified wood. So I took pictures and more pictures. You could see pictographs on the huge rocks left there by the Native Americans. There was on there titled the newspaper, it had a lot of pictographs on it. It was very educational. Within the Forest was also what they called the painted desert. The different colors of sand was amazing. At the end of the road, there was a ranger station where you could see the history of the Forest. You could also buy a piece of the petrified wood there. It is a little expensive to buy, but you couldn't pick it up off the ground for yourself. Hmmm.

The Black Forest is near the north end of the Petrified Forest National Park. There are restrooms, a restaurant, and a large visitors center near by. This was our last stop through the park, so we were a little tired, but still enjoyed the views.

A lovely drive through and stop. The visitor centre and walk was great. A very interesting park. Overall a very good and worthwile place to visit

I saw several reviews complaining that it's not really a "forest" as the name indicates. That's apparently due to the tourists taking away a piece of petrified rock as souvenir when they visit. Supposedly, 1 ton of petrified wood goes missing every month. The photos I saw of the old petrified forest looks accurate to me.We were very pleased with our visit to the petrified forest. There were a lot of different landscapes and the petrified wood also looked different along the trail; they got more and more colorful as we drove near the south of the trail. In the museum, there was a chart of all the petrified wood across the united states, and I would say these ones in Arizona were by far the most beautiful and colorful one. It's one of those things that become cooler the more you learn about it.

We traveled from the Grand Canyon (out of our way) to visit the Petrified Forest. On our way into the Park from the south we came across many shops with all sizes of petrified wood for sale. This seemed to cheapen and lessen the park experience. As we entered the park, we immediately saw the petrified logs. They were beautiful in color and their story is amazing. At that point we could have turned and left but instead we drove through the park. This was dissapointing for us as we expected to see a "forest" of petrified trees. Not standing but trees non the less. What we saw was a piece of a tree here and there and the rest of the landscape was barren. The northern entrance was beautiful as it lies in the Painted Desert. The scenery here is absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. The Painted Desert is worth the trip, however the Petrified Forest will either put the kids to sleep or have them complaining for hours.

The word "forest" is not what we expected. The "forest" is all on the ground, sparsley scattered on the desert like plains. You have to really look to see the petrified logs and bits of trees to notice what they are. They are there and they are real. I would suggest you park and walk to see the pieces to actually get a good idea of the beauty. Otherwise, they look like stones just laying in a line. We were disaapointed at the number shops outside the park with what seemed a larger collection of petrified wood than what was in the park, and priced pretty high. ($15 for a baseball-size piece)The Painted Desert was great to see. It is a part of the park, on the northern end. There was a good variation of odd colors to see.Admission was priced OK.

As we drove towards Santa Fe, we saw one simple sign advertising the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. Needing a break from driving, we followed the arrows to the Southern tip of the park and paid $10 a car to enter.What a treat. This was our one detour on our Southwest road trip which really proves that you need to toss aside the map and just explore sometimes.The first section of the joined park was the Petrified Forest, where chunk after chunk of wood-turned-to-stone littered the hillsides. The park ranger explained that the park contained just 10% of the area's fossilized wood. How does wood turn to stone? In a nutshell, all of the organic material is replaced by minerals, and usually in less than 100 years. All of this occurs underground. The wood is buried, where oxygen is removed and mineral-rich water runs through the wood, taking its shape and pattern. Eventually the minerals harden, and, voila (!) you have stone.Turn into one of the several turn-outs to walk along the wood stones (stay on the paths, please) or venture into the small museum. It's free.The park offers a few areas in which to see petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are carvings made by scratching off the surface layer of the rock. The petroglyphs found within the park were made 600-800 years ago by the people of the Puerco Pueblo.The end of the park boasts the 'Painted Desert'. Layers of sea foam, rusty reds, pale yellows and misty blues whip together to make hills. (These are most colorful at sun rise or sun set). Cameras will never be able to capture the subtle differences in the colors and the magnitude of the vast area. Put away the Canon, and just enjoy.

化石化された木はここ以外にもありますので時間がない人または化石マニアでもない限りは無理してここを見る必要はないでしょう。

bunte Felsformationen die durch jahrhunderte lange Erosion entstanden sind. Wie mit einem Lineal gezeichnete unterschiedliche Farbabschnitte in den Felsen. Wie Tipis, die Behausungen der Prärie-Indianer sehen einige Felsen aus. Einfach genial, alles Natur. Und nicht zuletzt sind da noch die "Versteinerten Bäume, die schon seit Millionen von Jahren dort liegen. Eine ganz andere Art Nationalpark. Aber unbedingt ein Muß

Auf dem Weg zum Canyon de Chelly legten wir hier eine Pause ein . Im Visitorcenter wird genau erklärt, wie es zur Versteinerung der Bäume kam. Es gibt hier viele Trails, auf denen man an den schönsten Versteinerungen vorbeikommt. Das Mitnehmen von Versteinerungen ist strengstens verboten und wird am Ausgang kontrolliert.

Wir passieren die Staatsgrenze zu Arizona, und nach gut einer Autostunde sind wir im „Petrified Forest National Park“. An dieser Stelle ein wenig Zeit einzuplanen ist ein Muss für jeden Besucher dieser Gegend. Der Park bewahrt hier den Blick in die geologische Entwicklung der Erde. Die Entstehungsgeschichte dieses versteinerten Waldes geht über 230 Millionen Jahre zurück. Umgestürzte Baumriesen in jener Zeit wurden im vorhandenen ausgedehnten Sumpfgebiet von den Fluten unter dem Schlamm, der reich an vulkanischer Asche war, begraben. Fehlender Sauerstoff verlangsamte den natürlichen Zerfall, und aus den Ablagerungsschichten sickerte silikathaltiges Grundwasser in die Baumstämme ein. Im Jahrmillionen andauernden Umwandlungsprozess bildeten die sich verhärtenden Ablagerungen zu Quarz um und erhielten so die Struktur der Stämme in Stein.Unterteilt ist der Park in die Painted Desert (bemalte Wüste), die durch stark verwitterte runde Kuppen aus vielfach geschichtetem Gestein geprägt ist. Dann die Blue Mesa, wo Tonschichten von weißer und blaugrauer Farbe, gespickt mit versteinerten Holzresten, diesem Teil der Landschaft ihren Namen gegeben haben. Schließlich der Crystal Forest. Hier finden sich Stämme mit einer Dicke von zum Teil fast einem Meter. Das Besondere an den hier lagernden Stämmen sind klare Quarz- und Amethyst-Kristalle, die sich in Hohlräumen ausgebildet haben. An Fotomotiven mangelt es sicher nicht. Wir halten uns etwa drei-einhalb Stunden in diesem versteinerten Wald auf und können doch nur einen Bruchteil dieses 378 km² großen Gebietes durchstreifen; dennoch sind die Impressionen aus bunten Steinen beeindruckend. Die leuchtenden Farben und Muster der verschiedenen Mineraleinlagerungen, die nach dem Schleifen und Polieren besonders zur Geltung kommen, machen das versteinerte Holz zu einem idealen Material für das Kunstgewerbe. Vor allem durch das Souvenirgeschäft wurde das Holz einige Zeit regelrecht abgebaut. Als man einsah, dass diese Vorkommen nur begrenzt waren, wurden Mitte des letzten Jahrhunderts erste Stimmen laut, einige der besonders reichen Lagerstätten zu erhalten. 1962 schließlich erhielt das trockene Wüstengebiet den Status eines Nationalparks. Heute ist es streng verboten, auch nur kleinste Mengen versteinerten Holzes mit aus dem Park zu nehmen. Es finden stichprobenartige Kontrollen statt, bei Verstößen drohen harte Strafen, sogar Gefängnis!

Den Petrified Forest Nationalpark haben wir uns auf unserer USA Reise im April 2010 angesehen. Geplant war den Park in 3-4 Std. zu besichtigen und dann weiterzufahren, aber es wurde ein ganzer Tag daraus. Man fährt auf einer ca. 46 km langen Panoramastraße - kann natürlich überall anhalten- und bewundert die zum Teil wie Edelsteine schillernden Holzstücke, -stämme die überall rumliegen. Einfach unglaublich !!!! Auf keinen Fall - auch wenn es noch soooooo verlockend ist - sollte man sich auf den Lehrpfaden ein Andenken einstecken. Es ist strengstens verboten und man wird beim Parkeintritt darauf hingewiesen. Im Visitor Center kann man sich ein "Andenken-Steinchen" günstig kaufen! Besonders zu empfehlen ist der Blue Mesa Trail.... und Crystal Forest! Übrigens haben wir im ganzen Park keine Bürgerbuden o.a. gesehen......also an Verpflegung denken.....