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Tiponi Point
Overlook with a remarkable vista of the Painted Desert. Mid afternoon light.
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Blue Mesa
Blue Mesa and Blue Mesa trail offers unparalleled views of the badlands, log falls and pedestal logs.
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Blue Mesa 2
A panorama of Blue Mesa
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The Tepees
The Tepees are buttes of layered blues, purples and grays created by iron,carbon, maganese and other minerals.
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The Tepees panorama
Panorama of the Tepees
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The Crystal Forest
225 million years ago this area was a stately dense high conifer forest. As the trees fell, swollen streams washed them into adjacent floodplains. A mix of silt, mud, and volcanic ash eventually buried the logs.
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The Crystal Forest 2
This sediment cut off oxygen and slowed the log's decay. Silica in the ground water seeped through the logs replacing the original wood tissues with silica deposits. Eventually this crystalized into quartz and the logs were preserved.
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The Crystal Forest 3
Through land upheaval over millions of years the land became elevated, and the climate changed from tropical to grassland. Over time wind and water has worn away rock layers and exposed fossilized ancient plants and animals.
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Jasper Forest
Erosion of the high rocky bluff has left hundreds of petrified logs strewn across the valley below.
