Scenic Sunday: Jasper Forest

Jasper Forest in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. June 13, 2011

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

This is my post for the Scenic Sunday meme, which shares beautiful scenes from around the world.  To see more Scenic Sunday posts, or to join and show your own pictures, click HERE.

Petrified wood falling to the valley floor from a bluff opposite the overlook at Jasper Forest. June 13, 2011.

Jasper Forest is a valley in the Petrified Forest National Park that was once covered with petrified wood.  The petrified wood was encased in the bluffs that surround the valley, and when erosion removed the softer rocks, the petrified logs tumbled and accumulated on the valley floor.

Petrified wood at the base of a bluff in Jasper Forest. The forest gets it's name from the reddish-brown color of the petrified logs. June 13, 2011.

The valley was once filled with fallen logs, but commercial collectors plundered it in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  The collectors would then sell the petrified wood as souvenirs.  Outrage against the plundering of Jasper Forest helped lead to the establishment of Petrified Forest as a National Monument in 1906.

A partially exposed petrified log in Jasper Forest. It, too, may tumble to the valley floor in a few centuries. June 13, 2011.

Jasper Forest got it’s name from the opaque reddish-brown color of the petrified wood found in the valley.

Tags: , , ,

13 Responses to “Scenic Sunday: Jasper Forest”

  1. diane Says:

    It is an amazing place and the trees /logs look just like timber.

  2. Neal Says:

    Thank you George for making those pictures larger when enlarged. Those are wonderful pictures. That is an amazing place and it still looks unreal to me sometimes.

  3. Sandra Says:

    when enlarged, a couple of these photos look like someone took the time to paint the landscape. beautiful details when enlarged.

  4. Busy Bee Suz Says:

    What an unusual looking place; like another planet. 🙂

  5. Sylvia Kirkwood Says:

    It is such an incredible place! Terrific captures, George! It does almost look like another planet! Hope you had a great weekend and have an even better week ahead!

    Sylvia

  6. ladyfi Says:

    What great scenery!

  7. Rose Says:

    I hope people enlarged these…they are wonderful. What a place to see.

  8. ewok1993 Says:

    very scenic. wish i could see this too.

  9. NCMountainwoman Says:

    That is such an amazing place. You got some great photographs.

  10. Judy Says:

    Interesting! I love the photos! Maybe that is the best thing about photos – we can take it with us, without denuding the environment!

  11. madrassi Says:

    Wow! This is an awesome landscape and details about these petrified woods are amazing. This post is a learning process for me. Thank you 🙂

  12. Loren Says:

    Just amazing….I can’t help but think of that Mel Gibson movie from years ago….Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome…Have you ever seen it 🙂 Looks like this throughout the whole movie IF my memory serves me correctly LOL

  13. sartenada Says:

    It must be awesome place. I wanna see Petrified Forest some day.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s


%d bloggers like this: