Thus quoth the Raven

This Common Raven just wants to make sure you to know that collecting petrified wood is prohibited. Amazingly, he sat on this sign making quite a racket despite numerous people, some with their pet dogs on leashes, walking past him on a nearby trail (some dogs even barking!). He was there long enough for me to get my camera back out of the car after I had stowed it away and change lenses so I could get the telephoto on to get a decent shot of him. It probably took me a minute or more to get organized, then I was able to slowly walk around him and snap 10 shots before my battery chose that moment to decide it was empty (my camera bag with a spare was back in the car....). This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/180 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

A recent fall?

Some of these petrified trees look like they fell within the last decade, not 225 million years ago! This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Of snow and petrified wood

Some areas of the Petrified Forest National Park are literally covered in petrified wood. This image was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

The Crystal Forest

In what could almost be a lunar landscape, petrified trees lie all over the landscape. This iamge was taken at 24mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Painted Desert to Petrified Forest

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks are part of a common geological setting. One can see petrified wood from the viewpoints along the loop road that curves north of Interstate 40 through the Painted Desert before turning west and then south across the interstate and to the main section where the Petrified Forest takes over. And where the petrified wood is very visible, it is against the backdrop of the Painted Desert landscape. Here is a view of some fantastic layered geology just before getting to the most prolific displays of petrified wood along the loop road south of I-40. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/1250 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Newspaper Rock

The Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs are aptly named - the face of this rock laying at the base of a small cliff is literally covered in Petroglyphs. Newspaper Rock is not far from Puerco Pueblo, another site with lots of Petroglyphs in the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest (see my blog entries on December 21 titled Puerco Pueblo Petroglyphs and Petroglyph Closeup). This image was taken at 168mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.