Petrified wood can be found in many locations around the world, often in areas where forests existed long ago. Here are some of the top places to find petrified wood.
The Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona is one of the best-known locations to find petrified wood. Huge log piles and massive petrified trunks up to 6 feet wide are scattered throughout the park's BADLAND hills and valleys. The Chinle Formation within the park dates back to the Triassic Period over 200 million years ago when the area was a lush forest populated by early dinosaurs. Multiple layers of fallen and buried trees allowed for ideal conditions to produce the park's striking petrified wood examples.
Eastern Washington state hosts the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park and over a dozen other fossil sites. Sixty different species of petrified wood can be found here, some dating back 15 million years to the Miocene Epoch when the area was covered by volcanic ash. The trees were buried by lava flows which prevented them from fully decaying and allowed minerals to transform them into vividly patterned petrified wood in shades of blue, green, yellow, orange and purple.
Petrified Forest National Park in Colorado contains the largest known concentration of petrified conifer wood in the world. This area was once a lush subtropical forest home to giant kauri trees during the Late Eocene Epoch around 35 million years ago. Multiple layers of fallen and flooded trees created ideal conditions for petrification. The park contains over 40 concentrations of petrified kauri logs, with some sites having over 1,000 logs piled on top of each other.
Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming offers a chance to find petrified wood dating back to the Eocene Epoch over 50 million years ago. Three-toed horses, fish, birds, and alligators once populated this ancient swamp forest. During the Eocene the trees fell and became waterlogged in an acidic lake where minerals infiltrated and slowly turned the wood to stone. Remnants of these ancient swamp forests can be seen in the hundreds of petrified logs still found scattered around Fossil Butte today.
Petrified wood can also be found in every continent, including Antarctica. Notable sites exist in Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, England, Germany, Namibia, and many other countries where ancient forests met the right conditions to transform wood to stone. For anyone interested in fossils, geology, or botanical history, collecting trips and museum exhibitions of petrified wood provide a breathtaking window into our planet's past and the natural processes that preserve it. With petrified forests found worldwide, you're likely not too far from a site where you can discover your own examples of this natural wonder.
