Petrified Forest National Park Petrified Forest National Park
is a United States National Park that is in eastern Arizona, in
the Southwest region of the United States. The park takes its
name from the remnants of ancient trees which have been
transformed into brilliantly colored minerals through a series
of geological processes. Petrified Forest was set aside as a
national monument in 1906 to preserve and protect the petrified
wood for its scientific value. The monument became a national
park in 1962, and legislation passed in 2004 more than doubled
the park's area from 93,533 acres to 218,533 acres. Petrified
Forest National Park features one of the world's largest and
most colorful concentrations of petrified wood, the multi-hued
badlands of the Chinle Formation known as the Painted Desert,
historic structures, archeological sites, and displays of 225
million year old fossils. The park is now recognized as
protecting the best representation of the Late Triassic Period
in the world, and on average paleonto