Escalante Petrified Forest State Park

Escalante Petrified Forest State Park
Utah State Park
Large piece of petrified wood in Escalante Petrified Forest State Park
Country	United States
State	Utah
County	Garfield

Location	Escalante
- elevation	5,900 ft (1,798 m) ^[1]
- coordinates	37°47′16″N 111°37′46″W / 37.78778°N 111.62944°W / 37.78778; -111.62944Coordinates: 37°47′16″N 111°37′46″W / 37.78778°N 111.62944°W / 37.78778; -111.62944

Area	1,350 acres (546.3 ha) ^[2]

Founded	1963 ^[2]
Management	Utah State Parks

Visitation	57,934 (2011) ^[3]

IUCN category	V - Protected Landscape/Seascape

Location of Escalante Petrified Forest State Park in Utah

Escalante Petrified Forest State Park (also known as Escalante State Park) is a state park of Utah, USA, located a half-mile (0.8 km) north of the town of Escalante. A visitor center was built in 1991, and features displays of plant and marine fossils, petrified wood and fossilized dinosaur bones over 150 million years old (Upper Jurassic Period). The Petrified Forest Trail is a one-mile (1.6 km) loop, winding up the side of a mesa to the top where most of the fossil wood occurs. Logs two feet or more in diameter are seen at several places along the trail where it is eroding from the conglomerate capping the mesa. This conglomerate lies near the top of the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation.^[4] The wood is multicolored (mostly red, yellow, white, and black) and was prized by hobbyists before the Park was established. The logs are believed to be of conifers that were transported by a river before being buried and later fossilized as agate. A 50 foot (15m) log is displayed near the trail head and is one of the most complete fossil logs known from the Morrison Formation.

Fossil log displayed at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, Utah. This 50 foot (15 m) log is one of the longest known from the Morrison Formation

The Sleeping Rainbows trail is an optional .75-mile (1.21 km) loop off the Petrified Forest Trail. This section is much steeper and requires scrambling and climbing over rocks.^[5]

In 1954 Wide Hollow Reservoir was constructed to provide irrigation for the town of Escalante. The reservoir is stocked with rainbow trout and bluegill, and is popular for water sports including swimming, boating and fishing.

References

This article incorporates public domain material from the website of the Division of Utah State Parks and Recreation.

↑ "Escalante Petrified Forest State Park: About the Park". Utah State Parks. Retrieved 2011-02-05.
1 2 "Escalante Petrified Forest State Park Resource Management Plan" (PDF). State of Utah Natural Resources: Division of Parks and Recreation. September 2005. Retrieved 2011-02-05.
↑ "Utah State Park 2011 Visitation" (PDF). Utah State Parks Planning. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
↑ Morgan, S., B.W. Lindsay and A.P. Williams 2010. Geology of Escalante State Park, Utah. Pp. 429-436 in The Geology of Utah Parks and Monuments. Utah Geological Association Publication 28
↑ "Escalante Petrified Forest State Park". Utah State Parks.

External links

Escalante Petrified Forest State Park

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Escalante Petrified Forest State Park.

Protected areas of Utah

Federal

National Parks	Arches Bryce Canyon Canyonlands Capitol Reef Zion

NPS National Monuments	Cedar Breaks Dinosaur Hovenweep Natural Bridges Rainbow Bridge Timpanogos Cave

National Historic Site	Golden Spike

National Recreation Area	Glen Canyon

National Historic Trail	Mormon Pioneer

National Forests	Ashley Caribou-Targhee Dixie Fishlake Manti-La Sal Sawtooth Uinta-Wasatch-Cache

Forest Service areas	Desert Biosphere Reserve Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area

National Wildlife Refuges	Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge Fish Springs Ouray

National Conservation Areas	Beaver Dam Wash Red Cliffs

BLM National Monument	Grand Staircase-Escalante

U.S. Wilderness Areas	Ashdown Gorge Beartrap Canyon Beaver Dam Mountains Black Ridge Canyons Blackridge Box-Death Hollow Canaan Mountain Cedar Mountain Cottonwood Canyon Cottonwood Forest Cougar Canyon Dark Canyon Deep Creek Deep Creek North Deseret Peak Doc's Pass Goose Creek High Uintas LaVerkin Creek Lone Peak Mount Naomi Mount Nebo Mount Olympus Mount Timpanogos Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Pine Valley Mountain Red Butte Red Mountains Slaughter Creek Taylor Creek Twin Peaks Wellsville Mountain Zion

State

State Parks Northern Region	Antelope Island Bear Lake Camp Floyd/Stagecoach Inn Deer Creek East Canyon Flight Park Great Salt Lake Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail Hyrum Jordan River OHV Park Jordanelle Red Fleet Rockport Starvation Steinaker Utah Field House of Natural History Utah Lake Wasatch Mountain Willard Bay

State Parks Central Region	Fremont Indian Goblin Valley Green River Huntington Millsite Palisade Scofield Territorial Statehouse Yuba

State Parks Southern Region	Anasazi Coral Pink Sand Dunes Dead Horse Point Edge of the Cedars Escalante Petrified Forest Frontier Homestead Goosenecks Gunlock Kodachrome Basin Otter Creek Piute Quail Creek Sand Hollow Snow Canyon

Utah State Parks and Recreation

Petrified forests

In the world

Europe	Petrified forest of Lesbos, Greece Chemnitz petrified forest, Germany Dorset Fossil Forest, United Kingdom

North America	Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona Calistoga Petrified Forest, California Pike Petrified Forest, Colorado Mississippi Petrified Forest, Mississippi Gilboa Fossil Forest, New York Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, Utah Lemmon Petrified Wood Park, South Dakota Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park, Washington Specimen Ridge, Wyoming Axel Heiberg Island, Canada

South America	Sarmiento Petrified Forest, Argentina Palaeobotanical Garden in Mata, Brazil

Oceania	Lake Macquarie Petrified Forest, Australia Curio Bay, New Zealand

Other	Damaraland, Namibia Bantak Petrified Forest Park, Thailand

In fiction

The Petrified Forest

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, January 02, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.