Motorcycle Classics – September-October 2019

http://www.MotorcycleClassics.com 85

W

hile planning a trip to New

Mexico earlier this year, I asked

good buddy and fellow moto-

journalist Joe Gresh to recommend plac-

es to see along the way. Petrified Forest

National Park was the first place he men-

tioned. It would be on my northern route

home and I’d never been there (a char-

acter flaw I intended to correct on this

trip). As a kid fascinated by all things

prehistoric, the concept of a petrified

forest was intriguing. I didn’t know what

to expect. Would it be a forest of stone

trees? Not quite, I was to learn.

Petrified Forest National Park strad-

dles Interstate 40 in northeastern

Arizona, with the northern entrance

approximately 50 miles east of the New

Mexico border. Viewed from above, the

park looks like a squared-off and lop-

sided figure 8, with I-40 cutting through

at the waist. Petrified Forest National

Park is bisected by the road that runs

through it; just follow the 30-mile-long

road from either the northern or south-

ern entrance as it meanders through an

incredibly vibrant and vivid desert floor.

And what a stunning 30 miles they are.

The panoramic views and colors are

breathtaking, including such things as

the Painted Desert (a name that speaks

for itself, shown in the photo above),

Newspaper Rock (covered with ancient

petroglyphs), the Rainbow Forest (a field

of actual petrified, fallen logs near the

park’s southern entrance) and much,

much more. Plan on spending at least

a half-day on this ride through heaven,

and bring a camera.

Theodore Roosevelt designated the

area as the Petrified Forest National

Monument in 1906 and it became a

National Park in 1962, but as you might

imagine, its history extends much fur-

ther into the past. To understand its

history, we need to go back hundreds

of millions of years. Then, what is now

northeastern Arizona was near the equa-

tor. Think subtropical climates, low-lying

plains, streams, ancient plants and dino-

saurs. Trees died and fell during this

Late Triassic period 225 million years

ago, volcanic ash blanketed everything,

groundwater dissolved the ash’s silicon

dioxide, and the mix seeped into the

fallen trees and formed quartz crystals.

These crystals ultimately replaced the

trees’ organic matter and then iron

oxides and other minerals merged with

the silica, thus creating the brilliant

colors observed in the petrified trees

we see today. Petrified Forest National

Park’s fields are littered with stunningly

vibrant ancient trees. Several prehistoric

species are represented; all are extinct. It

is quite amazing.

Human inhabitants arrived in this

area more than 8,000 years ago. People

grew corn and built pit houses approxi-

mately 2,000 years ago. Homes built

above ground followed centuries later

and became known as pueblos. Human

inhabitants left in the 1400s, most likely

due to drought. Spanish explorers came

on the scene in the 1600s, and by the

mid-19th century, a United States gov-

ernment expedition created an east-

west route through the area. This early

trail would later become Route 66, and

ultimately, I-40 (shortly after entering

Petrified Forest National Park from the

east, there’s a preserved section of the

original Route 66 with a vintage auto-

mobile that makes for a great photo).

Improved access to the region gave rise

to tourism; in the early days of the park’s

existence, theft of fossils (and specifical-

ly, petrified logs) was a serious problem.

It’s now a federal crime to remove rocks

or fossils from the park, but there are

petrified trees outside the park and you

can buy artifacts at gift shops in nearby

Holbrook. — Joe Berk

PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK, ARIZONA

RIDES AND

DESTINATIONS

THE SKINNY

What: Petrified Forest National Park, 1 Park Road, #2217, Petrified

Forest, AZ 86028.

Admission: $15 for a motorcycle and passengers for seven days.

How to Get There: From the east, take I-40’s Exit 311. From the west,

take either Exit 285 or 286 at Holbrook, Arizona, then US 180 east.

Best Kept Secret: Perhaps the park itself. I’ve driven through this

region on I-40 before and never noticed the signs for Petrified

Forest National Park. There are also many other places of interest

(and many interesting roads) in Arizona. Get a copy of my book

Destinations to read more.

Avoid: Leaving home without enough water or a hat (it gets very hot

in the summer months); taking anything out of the park.

More Photos: bit.ly/pfnp-az

More Info: nps.gov/pefo/index.htm A field of petrified trees, one of many in the park.