After a 70 mile drive from Gallup I spent a few hours at the Petrified Forest National Park. It was much more interesting than I had imagined and decided to revisit next day from the South entrance. Once a large floodplain crisscrossed by many streams there were reptiles, giant amphibians and even small dinosaurs living here.
Over time a mixture of silt mud and volcanic ash buried fallen logs , the mixture cutting off oxygen and slowing the decay. Eventually silica crystallized into quartz and thus the logs were preserved as petrified wood. Minerals in the silica saturated water has produced wonderful combinations of colors and patterns

Part 3