Arizona · National Park trail

Giant Logs Trail Stop #10

in Arizona

Stop 10: Who Cut the Wood? Note: the image is not working right now. Perhaps you’ve noticed the logs are sometimes broken into very regular sections that appear to be cut. Look up into the hill and you will see who is “cutting” the wood.

The hill itself is doing the job! It takes many, many stacked layers of dirt to make a hill. That is a lot of weight on top of the buried petrified logs. All that weight crushed and broke the logs. Why the regularity in sections?

A normal log does not break that way. But a petrified log does! Petrified wood is mostly silica-quartz minerals. The inner surfaces where they have broken are flat because quartz doesn’t break neatly across its crystal faces, so instead it snaps across the log’s shortest area—sort of like when you snap a piece of chalk.

States: Arizona
Trail type: National Park trail
Centroid nearest city: Flagstaff, AZ · 104 mi · ~3.0 hr drive
Centroid coords: 34.8145°, -109.8668°

About Petrified Forest National Park

National Park

This trail is inside Petrified Forest National Park, a national park managed by the U.S. National Park Service. Conditions, road status, trail closures, and reservation requirements are published on the park's NPS page — check it before driving in, especially in winter or during major weather events.

Entrance fee: $25 per vehicle (verify current rate on the park page). An America the Beautiful annual pass ($80) covers entrance to all NPS units.

Official NPS trail page: https://www.nps.gov/places/giant-logs-trail-stop-10.htm

Park homepage: https://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm

Plan your hike

Practical notes

Maps + permits: long-distance trails like this often require permits for through-hiking, backcountry camping, or specific sections (especially in National Parks). Check with the maintaining organisation listed above and the relevant land manager before booking travel.

Water + supplies: water sources vary seasonally on most U.S. trails. Carry a filter and consult current trail-condition reports — through-hiker journals (PCT-L, AT Reddit, etc.) and the maintaining organisation publish regular updates.

When to go: hiking seasons vary widely with elevation, latitude, and snowpack. Through-hikers traditionally start the AT in March-April (Springer northbound) and the PCT in late April (Campo northbound). High-elevation western trails (CDT, JMT, Wonderland) generally aren't passable until July.

If you've hiked Giant Logs Trail Stop #10 and have current notes (water sources, trail closures, permit changes), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn.