The 0.9-mile lollipop trail sits in the park’s southern section. Morning or late afternoon mark a good time to hike the trail, as the sunlight’s angle will bring out the colors in the petrified logs.
To reach the trailhead, from Interstate 40, exit north onto Park Road and enter the park. After passing through the entrance station, continue along the road, looking past several overlooks. Drive under the freeway. Turn left/east into the parking lot for the Crystal Forest.
The fairly flat, paved trail heads east from the lot into the desert. Petrified logs are scattered all over.
Some 218 million years ago during the Triassic, this area sat at the edge of a river channel. As the trees – some of the 200-feet high – fell into the river or floodplain, silt slowly buried them. The silica-rich groundwater percolated into the logs, replacing and replicating the wood with quartz.
In about 200 feet, the trail splits. Go right/east; the other way leads to a shaded shelter. In short order, the trail divides again; go right/southeast there.
The color of the logs’ quartz depends on the mineral impurities in the water. Red, yellow, orange and purple quartz indicate iron oxides in the water, black and gray are magnesium oxides, and white is pure quartz.
As the heavy quartz logs settled, they cracked, as if a lumberjack took an ax to them. Eons later, erosion uncovered the petrified logs.
The trail gradually ascends for a fairly good vista of the badlands with petrified logs and the rolling grasslands below.
Many of the small petrified wood chips along the trail came from efforts to harvest purple amethyst from the the logs during the 1800s. Those seeking the gems to sell dynamited the logs in the days before the area was protected.
About halfway through the hike is a rest and reflection platform. This is the trail’s high elevation.
The buttes of the Blue Mesa appear on the northeast horizon.
When the trail reaches the shaded shelter, at about 0.72 miles in, continue straight-right/southwest. The next trail junction, in a few yards. brings you to the loop’s beginning. Go right/west back to the parking lot.
There’s no shade at all on the trail, so be sure to don sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat. Dogs are allowed.
TOPO MAP
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