Travel
fromTravel + Leisure
2 weeks agoThis Scenic National Park in the Painted Desert Has a 'Rainbow Forest'-and Route 66 Retro Vibes
Petrified Forest National Park is a must-visit for its unique fossils, historic Route 66, and diverse wildlife.
It was a bonnie morning 410 million years ago in what are now the Rhynie chert fossil beds in Scotland. The mists had begun to lift and swirl over the landscape, where hot springs burbled, lichen papered over rocks, and worms slithered as only worms can. Here, almost all life stayed close to the ground. The second-tallest organism at the time, a plant called , grew to a few centimeters at most.
These footprints represent the oldest evidence of amniotes on the planet, indicating their evolution occurred about 40 million years earlier than previously thought.