The Painted Desert in eastern Arizona is a geologically interesting area where we see the features of the desert painted in the various shades of colors and pastels that we find independently in other isolated areas of the American desert. Made up mostly of the various shades of red, orange and pink, there are also assorted pastel shades of blue, purple and maroon, all set within a framework of the brown, yellow and white natural textures we observe in deserts. Within the boundaries of the Painted Desert is the Petrified Forest National Park. While the area looks like any other desert scene these days, thousands of years ago there were great forests here and through the process of time, many of the fallen trees and logs are still scattered around on the desert floor. But now they have all become petrified and regardless of how much some of them may still look like wood logs when you walk up to them, they are in fact hard as rocks. Because they are rocks now. There are many pieces of these petrified trees scattered around over the 20 mile drive through the park and I hope I've collected a variety of samples to view.