The Painted Desert is a desert of badlands in the United States, which is situated in the Four Corners area. The desert is made up of stratified films of easily erodible mudstone, siltstone, and shale of the Triassic Chinle Formation. It runs from near the eastern end of Grand Canyon National Park and extends up to the southeastern part of the Petrified Forest National Park. Tourists can get easy access to the Painted Desert from the northern part of the Petrified Forest National Park. The desert is celebrated for its vivid and diverse colors, which not only contain the more common red rock, but also the hues of lavender.
The Petrified Forest is recognized for its fossils, particularly fallen trees that existed during the Late Triassic Epoch, which is approximately 225 million years ago. The forest consists of Late Triassic ferns, ginkgoes, cycads, as well as numerous other plants and fauna, including giant reptiles, known as phytosaurs, big amphibians, as well as early dinosaurs. Paleontologists have been excavating and studying the fossils of the Petrified Forest National Park since the early twentieth century. Visitors of the forest can enjoy witnessing big animals and small fauna, such as mice, deer,snakes, seven species of amphibians, lizards,and more than 200 birdspecies.
