Arizona’s Petrified Forest-A Walk through Ancient Time

It was a hot, mid June afternoon and we had suddenly landed on Mars.  Reality would say that we were in Arizona, but the scene around us seemed not of this earth.  What had to happen to fashion the patches of this unexpected terrain?  A terrain once dominated by the dinosaurs, its mysterious atmosphere was palpable.  We looked around at this fantastic, petrified graveyard, with its remains of preserved ancient trees.  Shards of wood from their large trunks scattered the terrain like ashes strung along thousands of acres.  My eyes were continually drawn to the fascinating display of grays, and dark reds layered in gradients across the groups of mountains.  Everywhere around us was a strange, never-before-seen glimpse into Mars-like territory; all that was missing would have been pockets of steam rising from its pores.    

We walked alongside various sized mountains of sand, layered with millennia of evolution painted for the eyes to see.  Wind had shifted the sands to buttes, resembling gothic buttrices to pyramid-like cathedrals, etched with craggy lines.  Up close the mounds of earth were a grey, textured, cracked elephant skin, hardened over thousands of years of relentless beating sun and wind.  Ancient log bits decorated the paths, and each slice revealed its rings of evolution.  Most had mingled with various minerals and formed quartz coatings, others were fashioned like unpolished garnets, left broken off and lost in the dry sea of endless other rocks left over the millennia. 

These were the trees that had breathed together with the dinosaurs.  The earth had showed us her museum, revealing its evidence of persistence over ages of dramatic change and evolution.  She was still here in this unique Mars-like form, and she would continue to be here persevering through ages to come.