The Crystal Forest is a small area of the park with a high concentration of petrified trees that are easily recognizable as trees and not just chunks of rock. A narrow paved walking path winds its way out from the parking area and eventually loops back to the parking lot.

  It is interesting how the trees look as if a prehistoric lumberjack cut them into sections and then left them in place. I can only assume that some point after crystalization the trees fractured in place like this. I've no idea what might have caused such fracturing. Cool looking anyway.

  I like this picture because it is another good example of how size is hard to judge without something to hint at the scale of things. On the one hand this might look like a gully wash, but if you let your mind wander, it looks like some kind of alien mountain range.

  This is the previous washout Now we have the gaggle of women for scale and the washout does not look so large in comparison ;-)

  This is another of the many sectioned trees. What I find so intruiging about it is the myriad of colors in the crystallized wood. In my minds eye I try to imagine what this place may have looked like so long ago when it was covered in these trees.

  Will and I are basking in the vastness of the landscape. It is so completely foreign to our daily experience that it takes time for our brains to absorb it.

  I like the way the surrounding gravel frames this piece of tree.It really highlights the fiberous pale texture of the rock.