PICTURE 1 - Rainbow Forest The national park entry from the south begins with a small museum and a walk through the forest ... petrified of course. Bring your lollipop and camera! Recommendation: if you're coming from the west, enter the park from the south and exit onto I-40.


PICTURE 2 - View of Logs This a nice view of the logs, showing the tree rings ... you can measure their age! These are literally where they lay when erosion washed away the surrounding dirt. Looks like the loggers got tired!


PICTURE 3 - Log Slices The view here is repeated across the landscape. The logs tend to break up into large 'slices' ... all ready for the big campfire someone was planning! Quite interesting are the bases of the logs, where you can see the beginnings of roots. This area was likely the upper portion of a river valley stretching northwest to the ocean.


PICTURE 4 - Tepees One area of the park has multiple hills playfully called 'teepees' (native american tents). This picture shows the positioning of the trees (small chunks in low area of picture), with geological layers on the hill behind. Whitish layers are sandstone, and dark layers are caused by high carbon content. Reddish layers are from an iron oxide called 'hematite'. Most 'teepees' are topped with clay.


PICTURE 5 - Sleeping Tree! Some of trees got tired and went to bed. Actually this is an example of a tree being eroded from beneath by a more recent stream. The 'bed' is park-built concrete to protect it's continued slumber! Note the sandstone layer in the foreground.


PICTURE 6 - Pictographs In the more recent past, pueblo native americans lived in this area along the Puerco River, just below this picture. They left ruins, stylized pottery, and drawings on the rocks below here. For more on the pottery styles, see our Pottery Guide!


PICTURE 7 - Painted Desert - East This is in the northern area of the national park, where gorgeous colors flow among the hills. You're looking east here, where the layers of geological time have become exposed. Bring your zoom camera!


PICTURE 8 - Painted Desert - North This is another view, looking north. It gives you a good feel for the erosion from the black volcanic layer on top and moving down into reds, whites and blues. What a palette of beauty! Now, now ... ignore all those paint cans in the distance.