Coda, Or Addendum, Or Post-Script, Or, You Know, One Of Those Thing-ummies

And last but not least on my fabulous work-ation from last year, we hit the Petrified Forest, which is another place I'd sort of romanticized since I was very young. It's hard to express the fascination of a young boy who dreams of finding buried treasure and trees that turn to stone, but there it is. I won't say that it was a disappointment, because it certainly wasn't, but it was not how I used to imagine it. Stone trees standing tall in a thick forest with stony leaves... well I didn't really think it was going to be like that by the time I was old enough to visit it on a work-ation, but I was hoping.

So it wasn't like some sort of fantasy crystal forest, but still. Look at that! Looks like wood! But it's not! It's the result of an amazing natural process which reminds me of how computer information copies itself. A tree gets knocked down in a big flood. Gets buried in silt and volcanic ash and silica and all kinds of nasty junk. Over time, the silica it is buried with takes the place of each grain of wood, often becoming colored by certain other oxides that are buried also such as iron and manganese, until there's no wood left, but an extremely faithful copy of each grain, thanks to time and pressure. Time and pressure are all that Andy Dufresne had... Sorry, wrong movie. Anyway, computers obviously don't knock down trees and bury them in volcanic silicate in order to copy information, (although to a more advanced computer geek than I, I'm sure that comparisons could be made) but it's the bit-by-bit copying that is similar in my mind. Sometimes the oxide coloring of petrified wood can be quite dull. Sometimes it's cool and mimics the color of wood in a way as in the above photo. Sometimes it's wicked.

I wanted to take home a chunk in the worst way, but there were signs all over threatening death, disease, mortification, and a chatty lesbian Park Ranger to all who pilfered from the forest. I guess it's a real problem, and I can see why... I think Saint Abstain himself would want to steal this log. (St. Abstain is a mental construct pincushion of mine, don't ask) The other cool thing they had in the Park were a whole bunch of petroglyphs carved by Pueblo Indians back in the day.

 

They don't really require much explanation do they? Some Indians got bored staring at the plains all day, so they charred up some rock and carved some art into them. Something to do, something to look at. I got loads more pictures of Trees that turned into rocks, and graffitti on rocks, over in my Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona gallery. Also, I finally made it through my billions of Grand Canyon photos and put a few up in my Grand Canyon, Arizona gallery, naturally enough. Here's one that really turned out well, I thought. Monks always make pictures more interesting.

Comments

[Miss Luongo]

That monk's shadow is huge!

You said 'petrified wood.' heh-heh

[messiestobjects]

You said 'monk's shadow'. heh-heh.

[Sissy]

I feel so dirty now, sitting here, next to my petrified tree stump. I actually lost my balance in the "forest" (which is, you are right, really just a desert) and bumped into one of those "take-a-tree-and-die" signs due to the weight of the "tree" I was carrying. My friend was like, "Um, did you read the sign you just rammed your shoulder into? You're not supposed to take the shit."

The forest, at first, seemed dull. I, too, thought thick, crystalized trees would be towering over me like sparkling warriors from another world.

I wonder about the forest that remains at the bottom of Raystown Lake. Back in my scub-diving days, we regularly dove to the bottom of the lake to swim through hundreds (maybe thousands) of upright standing trees - literally a forest preserved in ice-cold water just 20 feet beneath the surface.

I have a lot of catching up to do over here. I'd better get reading!

[kc]

I IMAGINED THE PETRIFIED FOREST THE SAME WAY!!!

But I don't mind saying that I was disappointed when I visited there. It kind of sucked. Forest, my ass.

[Sissy]

I had no problem robbing the barron landscape for that reason.

[messiestobjects]

Hey cool, I thought that the Louvre was a major disappointment... next time I'm there I'm totally robbing Mona what's-her-face. ;)

[Miss Luongo]

Rob Mona Lisa all you want. It's not the real one anyway.

[kc]

What do you mean it's not the real one? You mean the Mona Lisa that I saw wasn't the original painting?

I didn't rob the "forest". fuck that shit.

[kc]

and I blame my misinterpretation of the Petrified Forest on a Choose Your Own Adventure book that I read when I was 9.

[Miss Luongo]

None of the masterpieces are real. Fake. Fake. Fake. Just like the Crown Jewels. Fake. The rabble can't be trusted.

[kc]

and how do you know this?

[Blas Femur]

I had a pretty large chuck of petrified wood when I was younger. I loved that inanimate thing, but it got lost along the way. It's nice to see someone else express such an odd fetish.

Yeah, the monk is great. I love the way he is restrained by modern steel work.

Beautiful pictures, per the norm.

[messiestobjects]

Thanks man. I have a weak spot for photo flattery.

Interesting about the monk being restrained... I didn't really see that. I was more into his shadow action and how similarly colored to the landscape he is.

[Miss Luongo]

KC, it's insider information. Ask the people guarding the stuff. Sometimes they'll tell you what's what.

With the crown jewels, it's the baubles that are fake. The real stones are locked away.

But they don't want the general public to know this stuff because then stupid tourists like me might think twice before going to see the fakes.