Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Hello there, and thanks so much for joining us here! You are probably wondering what this podcast is all about? In this podcast, we will talk about all sorts of outdoor adventures, but primarily, for now, we will focus on hiking and backpacking. No other outdoor adventure is so accessible to so many people! So please join us as we talk about how to hike/backpack and learn how to hike any length trail from your local neighborhood parks to those long trails such as the Appalachian and others worldwide! Remember... "in every walk with nature; one receives far more than he seeks... - John Muir " See you on the trail!
Thenaturalmedic Adventures
When Trees Become Immortal: The Giant Logs Trail
Note: Audio only. Please see my YouTube video for the full story...
We explore the Giant Logs Trail at Petrified Forest National Park, discovering how ancient wood transformed into stone through a mineralization process spanning millions of years. The trail showcases remarkable geological treasures while revealing the park's rich human history dating back to the early days of the National Park Service.
• Ancient conifers similar to modern pines formed the original forest before being preserved in stone
• "Old Faithful" stands as the most extensive preserved log, struck by lightning in 1962 and reconstructed by the Park Service
• The Civilian Conservation Corps built the Rainbow Forest complex during the Great Depression
• Stephen Mather, the first National Park Service Director, helped establish protection for this unique landscape
• Trace fossils visible in the petrified wood show evidence of ancient insect activity
• Distinctive badlands formations throughout the park display colorful erosion patterns where vegetation cannot grow
• The mineralized logs are primarily composed of silica and quartz, causing them to fracture differently than wood
If you enjoyed that short walk through the Giant Logs Trail here in the Rainbow Forest Complex at Petrified National Forest National Park near Holbrook, Arizona, please give it a thumbs up and consider leaving a comment. We'll see you out on the trail.
Petrified Rainbow Forest Museum at Petrified Forest National Park. This is the Giant Logs Trail. You might ask yourself how did these pieces of wood become petrified and turn from wood to stone? It's a long, complicated process that took millions of years. It's similar to fossilization Organic material was replaced with minerals, which became stone. On our second stop we have Stephen Mather, who was the first director of the National Park Service, created in 1916. He was first director and he said a good citizen tours the national parks, born marketer, promoter and a natural for the position of National Park Director. Okay, as you walk up this trail, you can see Mathers Plaque over there, the ancient riverbed that we're walking on. Looking over here, you can see some really big pieces of petrified wood and the entire Rainbow Forest complex. This was built in the 1930s by the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps, which was an agency created by President Franklin Roosevelt, fdr, to give young men a job. During the Great Depression there was not a lot going on, but CCC did a lot for resource conservation throughout the nation. This is one of their projects. So, as I'm standing here, standing on a layer of sandstone that is much older than the mesa to the north of where you're looking. Think about the different layers that were laid down. The oldest layers were more toward the bottom, the youngest layers on the top. Pretty interesting how each of those developed under a different environment.
Speaker 1:This particular tree is referred to as Old Faithful Biggest one on the trail, I believe, maybe the biggest one in the park. The first Park Superintendent's wife in 1924 referred to this as the Old Faithful of the park, similar to Old Faithful, geyser and Yellowstone in Calix are a distinctive feature the name stuck after a number of names. In 1962, lightning struck this and broke it. The Park Service at that time put it back together and cemented it with a retaining wall so it wouldn't collapse. Nowadays they would not have done that. The times have changed. What a huge marble to check out. If you see here there's knots on the tree indicating where benches were. That determines the shape of the tree. That's what we realize, at least from a theoretical perspective, what these trees may have looked like as far as their growth form.
Speaker 1:Pretty interesting to think about A wild view up here. Yeah, if you look up the hill here there's a large log. It looks like it's been cut the weight of dirt from that hill on top there. Of course it's eroding and weathering as time goes on. You can see little channels right there in that dirt underneath the log, where water is running. You have the weight of the dirt itself, causing the log to fracture. This is not made of wood, it's made of minerals. It's silica, quartz. It fractures black chalk Isn't that interesting.
Speaker 1:They determined that these trees found here are actually ancient conifers, similar to modern pines. They had a deep taproot which protects against drought and also provides stability. You can see here this axis is very bottom of the trunk. This part would be the taproom. As we near the end of the trail, we have some badlands. Badlands are all over the American West. Formed in soft rock strata where vegetation cannot take hold, they form all these magnificent shapes and colors.
Speaker 1:For this last stop on the trail, we have what are called trace fossils. What they are is actually evidence of fossilized activity when the animals were alive. These narrow little tube looking things all over this tree were where ancient insects and other arthropods were feeding on the tree, similar to modern insects that get into pine trees. Pretty cool that you can actually see that on there. Most fossils you think of as evidence of an animal or an organism's death, but in this case trace fossils, which includes tubules like this, footprints or tracks, feces. They call those trace fossils because they form the evidence for when those animals were alive. Cool, hope you enjoyed that short walk through the giant logs trail here in the Rainbow Forest Complex, which is in the south end of Petrified National Forest National Park near Holbrook, arizona. If you did, make sure you give it a thumbs up, think about leaving a comment and we'll see you out on the trail. Bye.
