DID YOU KNOW? In Arizona, there is a National Park of 146 square miles that preserves and displays one of the world's largest concentrations of colorful petrified wood. The majority of the wood that can be found in this park has solidified into quartz that sparkles in the sunlight. Impurities in the quartz - such as iron, carbon and manganese - turn this wood into a beautiful rainbow of colors. Occasionally, purple amethysts, smoky quartz, and yellow citrine can be found in the wood as well.
We only made a quick drive through the Petrified Forest in Arizona since we had a lot of miles to cover and were short on time that day, but it was definitely an intriguing place to visit. It was a vast, wide-open space with random strewn petrified logs. Because of our limited time, we didn't get to explore as many of the trails as we would have liked, but we did follow one right by the visitor's center in order to see this natural wonder up close.
It was fascinating to see the unique coloring of each individual log. Some of the logs looked like they'd been neatly cut into slices by a heavy-duty chainsaw of sort, but the brittle quartz actually causes the log to fall apart into these slices naturally.
Random fun fact: Taking petrified wood from this forest is illegal, but of course there are many whose desire for a souvenir is more important to them than the law. For decades there has been a popular and widespread myth that those who steal wood from the park are cursed. Additionally, the park has received thousands of apology letters over the years telling stories of the wood's curse on the tourist's life, usually accompanied by the incriminating piece of wood. Because the rangers don't know where the rocks came from originally, they end up in a pile (not accessible to the public) nicknamed the "Conscience Pile." Rangers don't remember how or when the pile originally started, but it has grown to the size of a pick-up truck. Letters are collected in 3-ring binders and few gain access to them. Here's a sampling of a few 1980's letters that have been made available to the public.
I found this very amusing when I was researching information about the park. I thought I'd share it with you :)
Until next time, God bless!
Point taken. No stealing rocks. ;)