Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!
Escalante Petrified Forest State Park preserves a forest of fossilized wood over 150 million years old. We visited the park midway into our road trip up scenic Route 12 in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. It was only $8 per carload to enter the park.
There is a display at the foot of the Petrified Forest Trail which explains how the trees turned to stone. Millions of years ago, the rivers flooded, washing uprooted trees downstream which then became embedded in sediment on the riverbanks. Volcanic eruptions covered the area with ash which leached minerals into the buried trees, preserving them in stone.
The Petrified Forest Trail is a steep one mile loop up the side of a mesa. At the top, there were large pieces of colorful petrified wood scattered throughout and great views of the Wide Hollow Reservoir nearby.
The short Sleeping Rainbows Trail loops off the main trail on top of the mesa and the ranger at the entrance told us there were even better petrified wood specimens on it. But it wasn’t clearly marked and we were hot, so we gave up trying to find it and headed back to the car to continue our journey.
Grand Staircase Escalante posts:
- Grand Staircase Escalante Monument Overview
- Dixie National Forest: Red Canyon Tunnels
- Grand Staircase Escalante: Blues Overlook
- Escalante Petrified Forest State Park
- Fishlake National Forest: Larb Overlook (Coming Soon)
Location: 710 Reservoir Rd, Escalante, UT 84726
Designation: State Park
Date designated or established: 1963
Date of my visit: 4/12/2017
Here is the park’s video of a newer mountain bike trail built in a different section than the trail we hiked. Views are similar to the ones we had as we climbed the mesa.
A trail trip like this gotten lots of Geography topics, such as formation of rocks, forestry etc to be discovered isn’t it? What a learning journey.
TGIF. Have a good weekend.
Yes it was an educational trip 😊 Happy weekend to you too!
That is such a beautiful area. Hopefully we can visit the area sometime this year. The park has some nice slot canyon hikes, too. Better for a spring or fall trip.
Thanks 😊. Yes, we visited Utah in early April…not too hot, not too cold
Your very fine images waft me away from all this, not only microbes; in fact, not only murder and mayhem and vandals and vigilantes; and strange storm called derecho in Philly and NJ. You remind me of the ancient beauty Nature provides and somehow sustains despite dire human depredations. I feel as though, in your scenes, I am strolling with you. Incarcerated as I feel, even curfewed last week, I am pathetically grateful for these wide open spaces, this limitless unscarred beauty. cfe
Thanks for reading and commenting, Carolyn. Slowly but surely, we will return to our wanderings. Stay safe🙏🏻
I can only wander to my refuges through you, and by writing new NJWILDBEAUTY blogs – but your journeys and photographs, afar and afield, t , nourish me, heal me. Know that. Blessings, Carolyn
😊😊
Interesting
Thanks 😊
Beautiful. Love the West!
Thanks 😊
That petrified wood is so cool. I’ve been wanting to go to Staircase Escalante NP but had not heard until now about this interesting state park.
Thanks for reading and commenting 😊