Down Into Blue Mesa
Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

At the north end of Blue Mesa there is a trail that lets you go down into a bowl and hike around among the hills of eroded mudstone and siltstone. It gives you a much better opportunity to look at and feel the ancient layers of mud, silt and sand. And all the way through the area you'll find petrified wood in the gullies and sticking out of the sides of the hills. There is even an area where it looks like petrified sawdust, although the sign there claims it's really just clam and shellfish fossils.

The walk down is paved nearly the whole way, the hike around is up and down but isn't bad, the real fun comes when you start back up that first hill... In the photo above notice the woman in the switchback sitting on the bench, and the folks up top looking down and thinking about it.