Have you been to a Petrified Forest, yet?

If you’ve been a long time reader of the blog, you’ve read about and seen pictures of several Redwood Trees, here. You have also read about several volcanoes and volcanic sites, here on Tipsy from the TRIP. Now, let me take you on a trip to a Petrified Forest, where a volcano petrified some redwood trees. No not ‘that’ kind of petrified. I mean, where some redwoods and a couple of other trees were turned into stone. 

Now, you don’t have to be petrified because we’re not discussing sorcery here. We’re talking geology and volcanology. And you are going to see some — I’m hoping — unforgettable sights. 

A side story of a side trip

Let me start with how I found this place. By the way, this post must have been out ages ago because I’ve been pregnant with this story for over 5 years, now.  I better deliver now, than never. It happened when I was in California’s wine country but couldn’t drink wine. I was actually pregnant. So I went to Napa to see a geyser. 😀

After being entertained by The Old Faithful Geyser of California, we were supposed to stroll around downtown Napa, have dinner and drive back to the Silicon Valley. But then, while I was leaving the place, I had picked up a local magazine and was casually flipping through the pages when an unassuming advertisement caught my eye. It was the name of the place in the advertisement that piqued my interest. I wondered what in the world a ‘Petrified Forest’ might be!

And as you might have guessed, I hijacked the car we were travelling in to that intriguing forest that was just a stone’s throw (around 10 minutes) away from the geyser. 

California’s Petrified Forest

Millions of years ago,  when Mt. Helena — a few miles away from here — erupted, it hurled ash to the surrounding areas and buried trees alive. Over the years that followed, the minerals from the ash are said to have found their way into the trees thereby turning them into stone in due course. This process of turning organic matter into rock is called Petrification. 

I read somewhere that the reason these trees don’t rot is that there are no bacteria to break them down as they themselves die when the volcanic ash suffocates them. 

The first petrified trees here in Calistoga, I hear were, discovered in 1870. They have since been unearthed, studied and preserved. This Petrified Forest in California is privately owned but is open to people who might want to go see and learn about the trees. 

Petrified Redwood Trees

Redwood Trees are native to California. You can see different species of the Sequoia in some places between the north and central parts of the state. And if you want to see redwood trees that turned into stone thanks to California’s volcanic history, this is the place to do so.

Petrified Wood – a closer look

The trees in the pictures above don’t really give you the best idea of how stony these trunks turned, from the volcanic ash, does it? So let me show you some close up of the wood, to do justice to this tour of the Petrified Forest in Calistoga, California.

You might also like:

• See what the ash from Mt. Mazama (on Crater Lake now is) created — A Pumice Desert
• A peek at CA’s Volcanic past at Lassen Volcanic National Park
• Volcanic sites on Tipsy from the TRIP

Linking to Our World Tuesday
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Thursday Tree Love

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