Quite a few years ago, my brother and I went on a weekend trip through northeastern Arizona. One afternoon, we went hiking in at Petrified Forest National Park. The trail was difficult to follow, so we gave up trying, and just started heading off into the backcountry. Petrified Forest NP, which lies in the middle of the Painted Desert, has hills that can look the same very quickly, and is not the place for an inexperienced hiker. After about a couple miles of this, we knew it was almost time to turn around, when something caught our attention. As we got closer, we couldn’t believe our eyes. There were two standing petrified trees! Although one was more like a tree fragment, the larger was about 9-10 feet tall.
As you take the driving tour through the park, you will see the petrified logs laying on the ground, with some I’ve seen 40-50 feet in length. I haven’t covered every square mile of Petrified Forest National Park, but I’m pretty sure these trees were the last ones standing. That day was a complete adrenaline rush, but both my brother and I knew we had to come back and see this again with different skies.
It was almost a year later when our schedules coincided and we had dramatic skies to photograph this rare find. It had been a wet winter, and the washes still had water as we headed into the backcountry. Like I said earlier, the hills can look alike, and we were having trouble locating the trees. We were joking that we were losing our tracking abilities, but then we discovered why we were having difficulty. The taller of the trees was no longer standing.
As I mentioned, it had been a wet winter, and the soft soil of the Painted Desert captures impressions very well. When we arrived at the fallen tree, there was a lone set of footprints that wandered towards the tree in an almost drunken fashion, stopped at the tree (easily in arms reach), then continued onward. When this tree eventually fell, I figured it was going to be towards the right (top photo), but it had fallen to the left. More importantly, it fell away from the footprints.
I find it highly improbable that this tree stayed upright for so many centuries, then fell on its own within the next year. The footprints and the direction of the fall lead me to believe it had assistance. This seems like the senseless destruction that only a young male would do, but then the story about boy scout leaders toppling a boulder in Goblin Valley, Utah a couple years ago makes me wonder. They were both in their 40’s, and supposed role models, but look like immature teenagers in the video. Their excuse was “we didn’t want the rock to fall on someone and hurt them”. Sounds like the bullshit their lawyer fed them.
In the case of the petrified tree, the footprints wandered further into the backcountry. I honestly hope that the asshole who did this was drunk and couldn’t find their way back, and ended up being a good meal for the coyotes and buzzards. At least there would be some purpose for this waste of life.
Even with the photos I did manage to get on the first trip, it took a couple tries before I had one published. Ironically, on the day after the magazine came out, I received a phone call from a photographer who gave me a long winded story when I inquired about one of his locations. For a brief moment, I felt like sending him on a wild goose chase, but I was still disgusted over this, and just told him how there was nothing left to go back to.
August 20, 2016 at 6:26 pm
Hearing stories like this literally makes me feel sick to my stomach. I just can’t comprehend why some people feel the need to destroy or deface things like this.
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August 20, 2016 at 7:39 pm
I will never understand, either. The expression “boys will be boys” comes to mind, but I think that translates to some people never learn respect or value.
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August 20, 2016 at 6:47 pm
Why the hell would anyone do this!
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August 20, 2016 at 7:32 pm
I have no idea, John. If this was something with easy access, it probably would have been fenced off (like some petroglyphs I’ve seen) because the land managers know there is ignorance out there. These trees were far enough away that I would only have expected someone out there with wilderness experience, and some respect, making this even more confusing.
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August 20, 2016 at 10:21 pm
I see. That’s some serious BS considering the significance of the situation. As with so much nonsense in our so-called m0dern life it’s so very sad that millions of years of our specie has a net result of nill.
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August 20, 2016 at 11:03 pm
Sometimes I feel that we as a species are regressing, but then I have to remember these are the actions of a small minority. If, however a given percentage of the population will forever be inconsiderate or ignorant, and our population continues to grow, then the number of irresponsible actions must also grow. Finding a way to make everyone realize this planet is special and unique for our existence is the only hope.
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August 21, 2016 at 6:22 pm
People are dicks.
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August 21, 2016 at 8:37 pm
I’m glad you said it. I was trying to sugar-coat my opinion on this perpetrator.
I will remove this comment if you don’t want it to stay out there. 🙂
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August 21, 2016 at 6:25 pm
That is soooo not the tone I want to use as representative of my blog…but there it is. I get crazy when I’m out camping in the woods somewhere or just out jammin’ on nature when I came upon such *sshattery.
Argh..tomorrow…tomorrow I shall return to that upbeat looking on the bright side tone I’ve been trying to maintain. 🙂
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August 21, 2016 at 8:40 pm
I get annoyed when I come across places where people have carved their name into the rocks, but this…..I still get disgusted when I think about it. I just couldn’t post these pics without telling the whole story.
I hope tomorrow finds you in a more positive mood!
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August 22, 2016 at 12:52 am
Don’t you wonder how it’s possible to be so immune to the immense beauty around you and instead be destructive? Or could it be a reaction to awe? That the immense beauty shows them their own insignificance and so they lash out?
It just saddens me so deeply.
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August 22, 2016 at 1:55 pm
I’m saddened by this behavior as well, but this seems to be acceptable to a few. I can’t get into the mindset of “wouldn’t this be fun to watch as it falls”. Apparently the miscreants at Goblin Valley are not alone at posting rock pushings on YouTube. In every case the idiots involved (and their spectators) sound like they’re having a blast. Somehow, the likes outnumber the dislikes on these.
Nobody posts videos when things go wrong, so maybe we need more Darwin Awards on the news like the guy in Arizona a number of years ago. He decided to see how many shotgun blasts going through the base of a saguaro cactus were needed to make it fall. When it fell it landed on him and crushed him to death. At least the needles hit him first. Sometimes Karma comes back quickly!
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August 23, 2016 at 12:37 am
I just can’t get my head around people doing things like that. I really can’t. It is beyond sad.
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August 23, 2016 at 1:19 pm
I will never understand either. And yes, beyond sad.
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