Giant Logs Trail, Petrified Forest National Park
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Giant Logs Trail
Popular, paved loop trail with a few short slights of steps, around a low sandstone hill on the west side of Rainbow Forest Museum, past some of the largest and most colorful petrified logs in the park
Length: 0.4 miles (loop)
Elevation change: 40 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Type: Loop
Usage: High
Season: All year
Trailhead: Parking lot at Rainbow Forest Museum
Rating (1-5): ★★★★★
Elevation change: 40 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Type: Loop
Usage: High
Season: All year
Trailhead: Parking lot at Rainbow Forest Museum
Rating (1-5): ★★★★★
The Giant Logs Trail is probably the most popular hike in the Petrified Forest since it starts right next to the visitor center/museum, near the south entrance to the park. The trail, a 0.4 mile figure-of eight-loop, is paved and mostly wheelchair-accessible, albeit with several flights of steps, traversing small hills and gullies of light-colored sandstone, strewn with numerous, huge petrified logs, generally deep red, and including intact trunks up to 50 feet long.
One log known as Old Faithful is nearly 10 feet across at the base, considered the largest log in the whole park; its name references a remark in the 1920s by the wife of the park superintendent, that the log is as important to the Petrified Forest as Old Faithful Geyser is to Yellowstone.
The petrified logs are very densely spread all around the path, though the majority of the surrounding land has no fossils, instead just barren plains; rather more extensive are the trees on the Long Logs Trail, which also begins from the main car park.
There are plenty of parking spaces at the Giant Logs trailhead, the large lot along the park road in between Rainbow Forest Lodge and Rainbow Forest Museum. The path begins behind the museum, actually three paths, the start and ends of the outer loop, and a connecting route across the center. The northern path ascends gradually, passing a plaque commemorating Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, then climbs some steps to a high point, and moves round to a junction with the connecting path, near the Old Faithful log. The other half of the loop heads south, over mounds and close to many more petrified logs, back to the museum. An unpaved extension leads 500 feet west to the rim of a steeper slope, and a group of eroded sandstone formations.
All petrified wood on the Colorado Plateau occurs in rocks of the Chinle Formation, which is divided into several units; in this part of the park it is the Sonsela Member that is exposed. This member is also subdivided, and all the bedrock along the Giant Logs Trail is from the Rainbow Butte Beds, also known as Jasper Forest Beds, consisting of siliceous conglomeratic sandstone, incorporating fragments of chert, quartzite and volcanic clasts, and this contains much petrified wood, red due to high jasper content. Just beyond the perimeter of the Giant Logs Trail, in most directions, the rocks change to the Lot's Wife Beds, a mix of sandstone, conglomerate and mudstone, generally lacking any petrified wood but including hoodoos and other eroded formations.
One log known as Old Faithful is nearly 10 feet across at the base, considered the largest log in the whole park; its name references a remark in the 1920s by the wife of the park superintendent, that the log is as important to the Petrified Forest as Old Faithful Geyser is to Yellowstone.
The petrified logs are very densely spread all around the path, though the majority of the surrounding land has no fossils, instead just barren plains; rather more extensive are the trees on the Long Logs Trail, which also begins from the main car park.
The Trail
There are plenty of parking spaces at the Giant Logs trailhead, the large lot along the park road in between Rainbow Forest Lodge and Rainbow Forest Museum. The path begins behind the museum, actually three paths, the start and ends of the outer loop, and a connecting route across the center. The northern path ascends gradually, passing a plaque commemorating Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, then climbs some steps to a high point, and moves round to a junction with the connecting path, near the Old Faithful log. The other half of the loop heads south, over mounds and close to many more petrified logs, back to the museum. An unpaved extension leads 500 feet west to the rim of a steeper slope, and a group of eroded sandstone formations.
Geology
All petrified wood on the Colorado Plateau occurs in rocks of the Chinle Formation, which is divided into several units; in this part of the park it is the Sonsela Member that is exposed. This member is also subdivided, and all the bedrock along the Giant Logs Trail is from the Rainbow Butte Beds, also known as Jasper Forest Beds, consisting of siliceous conglomeratic sandstone, incorporating fragments of chert, quartzite and volcanic clasts, and this contains much petrified wood, red due to high jasper content. Just beyond the perimeter of the Giant Logs Trail, in most directions, the rocks change to the Lot's Wife Beds, a mix of sandstone, conglomerate and mudstone, generally lacking any petrified wood but including hoodoos and other eroded formations.
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