Today we went to the visit the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted desert.  In many ways this was similar to Yellowstone in that you start at one end of the park and travel thru to various stops and vistas making your way to the other end of the park.  Its smaller than Yellowstone, but enormous with regard to petrified logs.  They're everywhere at the southern end of the park. As you reach the northern end things change and the sweeping vista's with reds, and golds, emerge.

Millions of years ago the area was approximately where Costa Rica is today, and just as tropical, with forests and rivers.  As the continent of Pangea split the area gradually became dryer.