Petrified wood specimen, Triassic period
Petrified wood specimen, Triassic period

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Arizona’s Petrified Forest formed more than 200 million years ago, when the area had a drastically different, vegetated landscape. Now a desert strewn with the fossilized, brilliantly colored remains of prehistoric trees, it became a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962. This status protects it from looters who would carry away the brilliant stones.
Loan from National Park Service, Petrified Forest National Park