Petrified Forest and Grand Canyon - A quick visit

Playing around with a petrified rock 

Petrified Forest

As a little boy, I would tirelessly browse through old maps and books, and one particular favorite was this book about the great wonders.  It has cartoon pictures of the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest and other intriguing sights.  I was sure that I would never see them or visit them in my life – and was just contented with my own little world of imaginings.

Luck and opportunity do present itself as miracles – and after decades of working my butt off, I guess it was time to revisit those childhood ‘impossible wishes’ and make them come true.  I mean it was not like climbing Everest where failing could mean the ultimate price, but more like closing a childhood curiosity.   Like an itch, it simply needed some scratching!

So finally, I – with my team arrived at the entrance of the Petrified Forest as part of this American Southwest tour.  As a boy, I never truly appreciated the word ‘petrified’ and for me it sounded like ‘scared to literal death’.   But the true geological phenomenon was more interesting.  The forest sunk in layers of earth and liquid, and over million years – particle by particle, layer by layer, the trees gradually transformed replacing its organic component with minerals.  While the ‘tree’ still looked like a dead log, the woods’ concentric signature still visible – they were all but stones.  Like the magical bird -Ibong Adarna that poops on people to turn them to stones, or Medusa’s stare that turns anyone to hard rock, the Cracken included (from that mythology film on Titans) – some geological magic turned the logs into solid rock.  That still looks like a tree, but a tree that will never decompose!

The ‘forest’ was all but dead and gone, except for the dead ‘logs’ that littered the area.  Some trees eternally lie on the floor, some in broken pieces.  Others would still have its lower part rooted on the ground as if an angry tree-cutter bulldozed or chain-sawed its upper parts.  Each log was cold and dead, but the intricate wood form was visibly intact. Quite amazing indeed!   A big piece was displayed in the nearby museum, all polished and shiny – revealing an astonishing natural wood-turned-rock design.  A design that took million years to finish. 

The forest park have built pathway for tourist to avoid destroying the preserved sites.  Many sections have small broken pieces of petrified wood, which could easily tempt anyone to pocket a piece or two.  But I (and the National Park Authorities) would strongly advise you not to.  On the superstitious side of things – there were many occasions of a curse and bad luck befalling those who snatched a stone.  The museum even pasted stories on their wall to ‘remind’ tourist of an impending doom should they violate this rule.  One story was written by a regretful guy – the stone in question included in the note and apologizing for his bad deeds.  He revealed that after he got the stone, terrible things happened to him.  Someone died, the girlfriend left him, his dog lost and a house burned or something like that – making him conclude that the only way to undo the bad vibes was to return the stone.  The park staff didn’t seem to be threatened by stone looters as they don’t do checks on bags and pockets unlike our terror-phobic airports.  But the stories on the wall were probably enough to give a good scare.  I for one.  Not that I believe in those superstitious things – but perhaps just the rule of karma.  Or just conservation.

All in all, my (terrified) team was satisfied with the petrified sight.   Unique, intriguing, thought-provoking, scientific – all in one!  The view may not be as ‘wow’ as that of Bryce or Arches – but the geological story that flows through the forest was alive and intriguing.  Only an invisible force of the universe can possibly produce such magical transformation – converting carbon-organic feature into something else. Stone!  A stone that lives through time.  A stone that doesn’t look like one.  A stone that tells a great survival story.  A story of a forest that has been dead for hundreds of million years, yet alive with its great and enduring evolution. 

A view that could kill

Grand Canyon

One of the richest, if not the richest geological ‘reveal’ on earth was the Grand Canyon – a huge mountain formation occupying a large area in Arizona and Utah.  But not because of its size, nor its view – but how it was formed which offered exposed layers of rocks telling us about Earth’s history. 

From where I stood on its southern flank – several kilometers across and down the valley – a particular mountain slope clearly reveals geological ‘layers of time’.  It helped that I read the brochure prior to the visit, making it more interesting.  The top layers were obviously the ‘recent’ time on earth, but as one look through each significant layer downwards – it was like going back in time.  Layers of sand, dirt and rock each with different unique composition, properties or even color represents an era...  The era of homo sapiens, the age of modern mammals, the long era of dinosaurs, the pre-reptilian era, the age of prehistoric trees and even the time long before that.

The technique of using ‘layers of time’ for study was similar to that of the ice layers in Antarctica.  But for a different purpose.  The ice part of a thousand-years past would show CO2 content for example or other atmospheric property, which could show a picture of atmospheric changes and its trend up to present day.

Similar to the rock layers of Grand Canyon – the rock sediments can be studied to reveal different clues of our planet’s history.  It’s no secret the sedimentation layers had been used to predict the age of fossils or mineral deposits so plotting each layer with time was something that scientists already know how to do.  Plus, the magic of actually seeing stones from a few hundred million years back without drilling deep holes on the ground!

But that’s not why I visited the sight – I merely want to tick off yet another important milestone in my seven wonders quest.  Ticking off doesn’t mean see-and-leave of course, there’s no point in ‘just seeing’ things.  So we walk on the southern edge, a thousand-foot drop below.  There were fenced section as usual, but here were parts where one could freely do daring photo stunts (- did I tell you this is dangerous?)  While walking along the ridge, appreciating the overwhelming formation was inevitable.  The only missing element for me was the chance to visit the valley or walk or rappel down the slopes.  That could be for another time.

When we arrived in a zero-tourist spot for our own photo opp, to our right and below were group of guys taking pictures on top of a protruding rock.  It didn’t look like particularly dangerous, in fact I sort of envy them.  But that was not the type of risk that I’d take for my group especially with no rope or other safety gears available.  I could be crazy and bold, but I take safety very seriously.  

Meanwhile, we had to focus and manage our own risk as we chose a rock spot that seemed perfect for our mini-photo shoot.  It was by the cliff’s edge!   We take turns doing serious, wacky and group shots.  Crazy pose would be simple and no jump shot was allowed.   Which could be your last. 

Our Gopro seems to be the best-fit device for the job if one wanted to capture the vast canyon backdrop several kilometers away.  The resulting shot was nice and given the wide semi-fish eye lens, which “proved” that the world is not flat.  That’s a joke for the flat-earthers as the picture have curved landscape at the background as if the planet was a lot smaller – and round.

In between shoots, we sat down, ate snacks and drank water – while having short moments of silence.  For me, it was silence that allowed me to appreciate the view, take it all in and just ‘feel being there’.  There was that feeling of being blessed, for seeing such magical natural wonder.  The silence of the layers of rock ironically echoed its message of resilience, timelessness and endurance… And unlike the fragile structures such as the Arches or Bryce Canyon – Grand Canyon literally stood the test of time.  For a hundred million more years to come!

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Travel Chronicles (2015)