Continuing the images from my visit to the Petrified Forest in Napa, California. Although the property is relatively small — especially when compared to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona! — there is still so much to see that anyone who, like me, loves to pick out interesting details, it’s easy to spend half a day happily exploring.

Yellow monkeyflower

The interpretive sign in the image above reads as follows:

This Excavation Is Done In Three Stages

1. A backhoe digs out the hillside from behind to near the petrified tree trunk.
2. Pick and shovel work is done around the top and sides of the tree.
3. Geologists pick and brush are then used to remove the rock of the trunk itself.

See Pictorial In Museum