National Park Service LogoU.S. Department of the InteriorNational Park ServiceNational Park Service
National Park Service:  U.S. Department of the InteriorNational Park Service Arrowhead
Petrified Forest National ParkOnyx Bridge within the Painted Desert, Photo by Marge Post/NPS
view map
text size:largestlargernormal
printer friendly
Petrified Forest National Park
Photos & Multimedia
Museum Management Program
NPS photo

Be sure to check out the Museum Management Program for National Park Service. There are great exhibits, collections, and Treasures of the Nation.

 

 

 

 

 

Learn more about Petrified Forest National Park by exploring scenic photo galleries and viewing short videos of park rangers describing features found at the park.

Wilderness (interactive slide show)
Wilderness (PDF slide show 2.3MB)

This page is still under development. Check back later for new additions! 

 

The following videos require QuickTime to view.

Ranger Marge Post discusses:

  • the badlands that make up the Painted Desert.
    QuickTime movie (8.31MB), 1 minute 34 seconds
  • how water shaped the landscape through deposition of sediments during the Triassic and how water shapes the landscape of today through erosion
    QuickTime movie 1:14 (7.24MB) 
  • why the petrified logs look like someone started cutting them up for firewood
    QuickTime movie 1:22 (8.05MB)
  • how the Bidahochi Formation was created and the resulting unconformity between it and the Chinle Formation
    QuickTime movie 1:43 (10.1MB)
 

Ranger Hallie Larsen discusses:

 

Ranger Janet Fernandes discusses:

  • badlands and their formation through the power of erosion
    QuickTime movie 1:29 (8.71MB)
 

Ranger Rita Garcia discusses:

  • erosion and the stories it reveals as fossils come to the surface
    QuickTime movie 0:52 (5.14MB)
  • windows of time between the petrified forest, the ancestral Puebloan people, and today
    QuickTime movie 0:51 (5.04MB)
red badlands  

Did You Know?
Standing on the edge of a vast badlands landscape, a Spanish explorer is rumored to have named the area "El Desierto Pintado" (The Painted Desert) because the hills looked like they were painted with the colors of the sunset.

Last Updated: April 24, 2009 at 12:20 EST