VOA · America's National Parks
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed8:552016-12-09public domain
America's National Parks tours the great outdoors of the United States, from Yellowstone to the Everglades. Rich descriptive language about geography and nature, delivered at learner speed.
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01This week on our National Parks journey, we travel to the southwestern state of Arizona.
02There we find a strange and colorful landscape.
03Yellow, red, and even purple rocks and sand cover the hilly earth.
04Huge pieces of ancient trees twist in unusual ways.
05The area is the only national park that includes a part of the historic U.S.
06Route 66.
07Welcome to the Petrified Forest National Park.
08The word forest may mislead visitors.
09The park is in a desert, and the word petrified, which can mean afraid, may scare visitors away.
10But fear not.
11Petrified forest gets its name from the trees that have, over millions of years, turned to stone.
12That natural process is called fossilization.
13Much of the petrified forest formed from tall trees called conifers.
14They grew over 200 million years ago near waterways.
15During floods, water forced the trees up from the ground.
16Over time, the wood from the trees became petrified.
17The Petrified Forest National Park is one of the wonders of Arizona.
18It sits within the painted desert.
19A Spanish explorer in the 1500s gave the place its name.
20It is easy to see why.
21The desert looks like an artist's canvas.
22Brilliantly colored mudstones and clays cover the land as far as the eye can see.
23They contain bentonite, a clay that is the product of changed volcanic ash.
24The oldest geological formations in the park are about 227 million years old.
25Differently colored formations show different time periods.
26The blue mesa formations, for example, have thick bands of gray, purple, blue, and green mudstones.
27They are about 220 million years old.
28Evidence of humans in the Petrified Forest dates back 13,000 years.
29People first came here after the last ice age.
30Early Paleo-Indian groups used the petrified wood to create different kinds of stone tools.
31They used them to hunt large animals.
32The climate warmed over several thousand years.
33Humans began building villages here and growing food, such as corn, squash, and beans.
34In the 900s, people in the area began building above-ground houses called pueblos.
35They also made pottery for cooking and other uses.
36Scientists today find evidence of early pottery and pueblo homes all over Petrified Forest National Park.
37A long and severe drought in the early 1400s forced most of the people living here to move.
38But new groups soon arrived.
39European explorers came in the 1500s.
40By the 1800s, American pioneers began settling in the area.
41And by the 1920s, American motorists were traveling on U.S.
42Route 66.
43The road winds through the heart of the Painted Desert.
44Long before humans entered the area, though, dinosaurs dominated.
45Petrified Forest National Park is a world-class area for fossil research.
46The fossil record at the park preserves some of the earliest dinosaurs.
47The dinosaur fossils are from the late Triassic period, called the Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
48The land here was set aside as a national monument in 1906.
49Congress moved to protect it because of its unique ecosystem, record of human history, and dramatic southwestern scenery.
50It became a national park in 1962.
51More than 800,000 people visit the Petrified Forest National Park each year.
52The best way to explore the park is by foot.
53The National Park Service maintains many kilometers of walking trails.
54The Crystal Forest Trail is a one-kilometer path.
55It is named for the crystals that can be seen on the pieces of petrified wood.
56The trail is one of the best chances to see this fossilized wood up close.
57The petrified forest includes many shapes and sizes of wood, from large logs to stumps to the smallest remains of plants.
58Most of the petrified wood found in the park is made up of quartz.
59Quartz is a hard, colorless mineral.
60The wood sometimes shines in the sunlight as if covered by glitter.
61The painted desert rim trail offers visitors a good chance to see the park's wildlife.
62Lizards and rabbits are common.
63So are snakes and foxes.
64Early morning or evening are the best times to see animals.
65These are also the times when the sun makes the painted desert the most colorful and spectacular.
66But whenever you choose to visit, the petrified forest and painted desert will awaken your senses and your curiosity about this ancient place.
67I'm Katie Weaver.
68And I'm Ashley Thompson.
69Thank you.
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