Painted Desert, AZ. April, 2001
The Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert are contiguous parks in AZ. Paul and I drove north through both of them. The rock is primarily from ash-falls during eons of volcanic activities, and the accumulations of petrified woods is often the remainder of the lahars from volcanic eruptions, not unlike the lahars from St. Helens a few years ago. They tend to quickly bury whatever gets caught up in them.
I took these shots not long before we left the parks and continued east.
There is some similarity between this scenery and that of the badlands in South Dakota"
