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Text: Petrified Forest National Park Audio Tour on star trails above park sign.

Podcast

Petrified Forest National Park Audio Tour, North Version

General welcome and instructions on using the Petrified Forest National Park Audio Tour.

Episodes

Season 1

Episode 1

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 1

Transcript

Welcome to Petrified Forest National Park originally set aside to protect late Triassic fossil trees. Petrified forest remains one of the most unique parks in the country located in the surreal landscapes of the painted desert region. Petrified Forest is best known for its petrified wood but also preserves and protects millennia of human history. the endangered native Arizonan grassland, dark night skies, and very active research.

This tour will enable you to discover some of the stories of Petrified Forest National Park. There are two versions depending on where you enter the park. One starting on the south off of Highway 180, the other beginning in the north off of Interstate 40. The stops in between remain basically the same merely in reverse order. You have the ability to stop and start this tour at any time while you progress through the tour. Park activities in addition to this audio tour will be suggested, however, you are the ultimate decision maker. Don't worry if your visit doesn't include every suggested activity. Every visitor's motivation for coming to petrified forest is different and whether you hike into the wilderness or not, we're happy you're here.

Different times of year provide different challenges from ice and snow in the winter to heat and dehydration in the summer. Please be prepared for adverse weather and always bring plenty of water. Be sure to take some time to chat with a staff member at either of the two visitor centers to customize your experience based on your needs, interests, and abilities.

Instructions Listen to the audio tour. As you drive through the park, you can stop the tour at any point if you would like to walk a trail or take in the view at an overlook. Please follow the posted speed limits and watch for wildlife crossing the road. There is no removal or disturbing natural and cultural resources in the park whether that's petrified wood, pot shards, flowers, or super cute squirrels.

General welcome to the Petrified Forest National Park Audio Tour with instructions.

Location: north entrance

Episode 2

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 2

Transcript

Entering from exit 311 off of Interstate 40, you're coming into the park's north entrance. You can begin your trip through time at the Painted Desert Community Complex. There are amenities here such as restrooms, convenience store and gas station, gift shop, park film, diner, museum, demonstration lab, and the visitor center. The folks at the visitor center can answer any questions you might have and can provide information and handouts to suit your needs.

Welcome to the Petrified Forest National Park North Audio Tour and Painted Desert Community Complex amenities.

Location: Main Painted Desert Community Complex parking area

Episode 3

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 3

Transcript

The Painted Desert Community Complex Known for his International-Style, Austrian American Richard Neutra built two important edifices in the National Park sites: the now demolished Cyclorama building at Gettysburg National Military Park and the Painted Desert Community Complex at Petrified Forest National Park. The low cluster of 23 structures makes up a self-contained community which seems to crouch in the windswept sagebrush. In 1958 Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander designed this complex to serve as the park's headquarters including administrative offices, maintenance, facilities, visitor and resident services and employee housing. Construction began in 1961. While the buildings were dedicated in October 1963, Neutra described the complex as a modern take on an ancient Puebloan village today. It is classified as a Historic District due to the architects, community planning and development and modern movement, International-Style architecture. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 and designated a National Historic Landmark District in 2016. A self-guided tour is available at the visitor center.

Painted Desert Community Complex history.

Location: Painted Desert Community Complex

Episode 4

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 4

Transcript

Past the entrance station a half mile beyond the vast open grassland, you come to the edge of HQ Mesa, an abrupt introduction to the Painted Desert. These colorful badland hills, flat-topped mesas, and sculpted buttes of the Painted Desert are primarily made up of the geological layers known as the Chinle Formation. The Chinle Formation is a series of sedimentary rock deposited by Late Triassic rivers, lakes, and streams over 200 million years ago within the Petrified Forest. The Chinle Formation is further divided to include, from oldest to youngest, the Blue Mesa Member, the Sonsela Member, the Petrified Forest Member, and the Owl Rock Member.

Drive after the north Entrance Station with an introduction to the Chinle Formation.

Location: Tiponi Point

Episode 5

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 5

Transcript

Tawa Point Follow the trail through the loose gathering of gnarled juniper and cliffroses to look north over the Painted Desert. The geological layer known as the Owl Rock Member is the youngest of the Chinle formation and consists of pinkish orange mudstones mixed with hard thin layers of limestone. Lenses of brilliant selenite gypsum are scattered throughout the owl rock member representing the minerals left behind after evaporation of water-logged Triassic soils. This member is exposed in the far distance on Chinde Mesa at the northernmost border of the park, and outcrops at a few other spots. The Owl Rock Member is approximately 205 million years old.

Tawa Point and Owl Rock Member and Walking the Rim Trail.

Location: Tawa Trail

Episode 6

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 6

Transcript

Soon...

Explore Tawa and Kachina Point, from overlooks and hiking.

Location: Tawa to Kachina Point

Episode 7

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 7

Transcript

Kachina Point and the Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark

Originally called the Stone Tree House, due to the petrified wood used in its construction, the Painted Desert Inn was built by Herbert Lore, with the help of local workers and registered with the Government Land Office as a homestead in 1924. Guests for the Stone Tree House were picked up by Lore from the train station at Adamana 10 miles to the south. Others would stop as they traveled along the National Old Trails Highway, which became Route 66 in 1926.

Lore sold the inn and 4 square miles of land to the National Park Service in 1936. The building was refurbished in the Pueblo-Revival Style to become the northern visitor center of what was then Petrified Forest National Monument. Due to a poor choice of building site and mediocre masonry skills, much of the building was rehabilitated by the Civilian Conservation Corps, also known as the CCC, following plans by the National Park Service architect Lyle Bennett. It's hard to imagine that it was almost torn down when the headquarters and visitor center moved to the newly constructed Painted Desert Community Complex in 1963.

Take a moment and discover this charming site which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1987. Some unique features of the building include unusually high-quality designed interior spaces, multiple pants of glass painted with Pueblo and pottery designs which create a skylight illuminating the trading post room, and the murals painted by celebrated Hopi artist Fred Kabotie. A self-guided tour is available inside the inn.

Painted Desert Inn history.

Location: Painted Desert Inn.

Episode 8

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 8

Transcript

Hózhó Point While named after the fossilized trees, Petrified Forest National Park is world renowned for its animal fossils, including large Triassic reptiles and amphibians. Over the last century, many new fossil animal species have been found here and added to international knowledge of the Late Triassic. Dinosaurs are just a small part of the diverse Triassic fauna represented in the Chinle Formation. One of those dinosaurs was discovered in the Painted Desert along the hillside here at Hózhó Point, formerly known as Chinde Point. Discovered in 1984, Chindesaurus bryansmalli was a turkey-sized bipedal carnivore. Chindesaurus is one of only two dinosaurs that had been discovered at Petrified Forest after more than 150 years of research. The other is the meat-eating dinosaur Coelophysis, well known from the large bone bed at Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico. Although only one Chindesaurus has been discovered, Coelophysis are found in the park as partial skeletons of multiple individuals. From the point, look down the basalt cliff with rounded pillow lava towards the red badlands, and you can see where Chindesaurus was excavated. It was quite the event, including lifting the massive block of fossiliferous stone to the mesa top with a helicopter, photographers, journalists, staff, and visitors.

Dinosaur discovered at Petrified Forest National Park. Location: Hozho Point.

Episode 9

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 9

Transcript

Pintado Point During the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene Epochs of the Neogene Period approximately 4 to 8 million years ago, a large lake system covered much of northeastern Arizona. Fine-grained river and lake-related sediments such as silt, clay, and sand represent the lower part of what is now the geological layer, the Bidachochi Formation. Volcanoes both underfoot and as far as the southwestern Nevada volcanic field spewed ash and lava over the region about 100 miles to the west. Look for the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff. These peaks are the highest points in Arizona and are stratovolcanoes that were most recently active around a million years ago. Many of the volcanoes were phreatomagmatic when ground or lake water mingling with erupting magma caused explosive eruptions. The resulting ash formed fine grain deposits that were left within the lake sediments. Lava that erupted under water also formed the distinctive round shapes of pillow the salt. After a few million years of erosion, most of the Bidachochi Formation has been carried from within the park boundary, leaving volcanic scoria cones and Mars, flat bottom, roughly circular volcanic craters of explosive origin. The vent from one of these mars is exposed on the rim of the Painted Desert across the park road to the east of Pintado Point. The Hopi Butte Volcanic Field, which is visible from the northern overlooks of the park looking northwest, is considered one of the largest concentrations of maar landforms in the world, covering about 965 square miles or 2500 square kilometers. The erosion resistant lava flows such as Pilot Rock and the Hopi Buttes protect the softer lakebed deposits beneath.

Volcanics of the region, including a maar crater nearby.

Location: Pintado Point

Episode 10

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 10

Transcript

From Pintado to Nizhoni Point Standing at the edge of a colorful sea of badlands and mesas, a Spanish explorer named the region El Desierto Pintado, the Painted Desert, or so the story goes. The initial Spanish explorations of the 16th and 17th century were focused on finding routes between their colonies along the Rio Grande and the Pacific coast. During the early 19th century, an expedition left Santa Fe and passed through this area on their way to establish trade with the Ute. Throughout the American Southwest, the Spanish became some of the earliest European settlers in the region. Within Petrified Forest National Park, Spanish inscriptions on rock surfaces have been discovered from the 19th century.

Early explorations and historic inscription.

Location: between Pintado and Nizhoni

Episode 11

PEFO Audio Tour North Stop 11

Transcript

Nizhoni Point The boundary where the Bidahochi Formation and Chinle Formation make contact is an unconformity. An unconformity represents missing time in the form of rock layers, either as a pause in deposition or rock that's been eroded away. It's a bit like a book with missing pages. You can tell that something's missing, but you don't necessarily know what was written. The Chinle Formation was deposited over 200 million years ago, but the Bidahochi Formation was deposited around 5 to 18 million years ago. The contact between the Bidahochi Formation and the Chinle Formation represents over 182 million years of missing time.

Host_043 Nizhoni unconformity.

Location: Nizhoni Point

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