Three West Coast forests turned to stone millions of years ago, and you can walk through every one
Most people think of a forest as something you look up at. These three you look down at, because every tree in them turned to stone long before anyone was around to name a state.
Washington, Oregon, and California each have a place where you can walk among petrified wood, and the cool, quiet days of late fall suit all three. Which one sounds like your kind of weird?
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Washington: Ginkgo Petrified Forest, the easy one
Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park sits above the Columbia River near Vantage, in the dry, sagebrush-covered heart of the state. The wood here was mineralized by ancient lava flows, and the trail passes petrified ginkgo, Douglas fir, spruce, walnut, and elm.
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A quarter-mile paved loop reaches most of the specimens, so this is the one to pick if you want a big payoff for almost no effort. If you want to stretch your legs, the full interpretive trail system runs 3 miles round trip with about 200 feet of climbing, which makes it easy by any standard.
You’ll need a Discover Pass to park. Look, don’t touch: removing specimens is a no at every one of these places.
Oregon: Clarno, where the fossils are still in the rock
The Clarno Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is the wildest of the trio. Towering cliffs of volcanic mudflow, laid down roughly 54 to 40 million years ago, rise over the highway in the middle of Oregon’s high desert.
Researchers have pulled leaves, fruits, nuts, seeds, and petrified wood from 173 plant species here, along with tiny four-toed horses and rhino-like brontotheres. The Clarno Nut Beds date to about 44 million years ago, back when this corner of Oregon was hot, wet, and semitropical.
The walks are short: the Trail of Fossils is a quarter-mile loop, and the Clarno Arch Trail is a quarter mile round trip. Both start from the Palisades Trailhead, where parking is limited, and the monument doesn’t require an entrance pass.
California: the redwoods of Calistoga
The Petrified Forest near Calistoga is the odd one out, because these are redwoods. A violent volcanic explosion about 3.4 million years ago toppled them, and the site’s own history points to Mount St. Helena, an extinct volcano a few miles away.
A walking trail leads past giant stone trunks, and self-guided visits run every day of the week. Admission is charged, so check current prices and hours with the Petrified Forest before you drive up. Pair it with a Napa Valley wine stop and you have a very strange, very good day.
How to pick
If you want zero effort, Ginkgo wins. If you want the full prehistoric-landscape feeling, Clarno is the one, and I’d argue it’s the best of the three for sheer drama. Calistoga is the easiest add-on if you’re already in wine country.
Driving all three is a serious haul: Vantage to central Oregon to the Napa Valley is a multi-day trip, so treat it as a long fall road trip with plenty of other stops.
Trip tips: grab a rental car to get out here, lock in your hotel before the good rooms are gone, or skip both and book a camper van instead.
Which stone forest would you visit first? Tell us in the comments.
Rules and fees change, so always confirm current requirements before you go.
