We spent today hiking through the petrified trees and archaeological sites of Petrified Forest National Park. The day was beautiful, ~70 degrees with a light breeze (which really felt good after a few miles hiking). A great attribute of the park is that all trails are pet friendly so Abby got to learn more about archaeology, geology and paleontology (and the millions of new smells along the trails).

(Rick and Abby at a Painted Desert overlook)

(Sharon and Abby by "Old Faithful" - the largest fossilized tree in the park)

The story captured within the park begins about 225 million years ago in the Triassic when the area was a vast tropical forest flood plain. The trees would die and topple over to be covered by sands and silts deposited by periodic floods. Also buried were dinosaurs of various kinds and reptiles related to modern crocodiles. Over time, the trees were petrified and the bones were fossilized by water-dissolved silica and minerals.

Well after then, the climate changed and the layered deposits began eroding uncovering the hardened remnants of ancient life.

A long time later - around 10,000 B.C. - people show up on the landscape. To date, more than 800 archaeological sites have been scientifically recorded in the Petrified Forest although less than half of the area has been surveyed. We visited a few sites - the ones that have been developed for tourists to enjoy. The earliest site is called Agate House because it is built entirely of petrified wood (and it was partially reconstructed by the CCC in the 1930s during the development of the park and who knows how much of it is accurate).

It was originally built around A.D. 1100-1300 (determined by the types of pottery present) and, because of its small size, was probably an seasonal outpost overlooking crops along a sandy ephemeral wash below. It only has eight rooms and does not have the range of facilities common to full time residences (like a kiva).

A younger site dating to A.D. 1300-1400 that we visited is the Puerco Pueblo overlooking the Rio Puerco. It was a rectangular one-story pueblo of about 100 rooms surrounding a large central plaza containing three rectangular kivas. It was partially excavated by the CCC - enough to expose the basic plan and to collect enough artifacts to estimate the date of construction and occupancy.

A large number of petroglyph panels are nearby and are probably contemporary with the Puerco Pueblo. Just about every motif that we saw in Petroglyph National Park near Albuquerque is also present here.

It was a great day - we stopped for lunch and ate left over home-made pizza that had been reheating in the sun for a few hours - and it was delicious!

Tomorrow we pack up and head for Cottonwood, Arizona. The small community is located in the midst of several archaeological parks and is near a winery that Christian says we must visit. We will give a full report of things as they happen.