Thanks Yvette for inviting me to this challenge! It’s a slow process for me but it’s coming along. Here’s my recent travel photos to share. Have a happy July 4th weekend and stay well!
These dusty paths and sloping trails looks like any regular hiking trail except that this place was once, 3.4 million years ago, covered in volcanic ash from a volcanic explosion. The trees at Mt. Saint Helena turned to stone as it trapped oxygen and over time replaced the inner tree matter with silica – turning them into stone fossil but with all the known tree attributes intact.
So this special place was unknown until 1870 when a farmer named Charles Evans discovered a log solid as stone on his property. With scientists, geologists, and researchers coming to study this phenomenon unearthed more knowledge of this petrification process.
This property has always been privately owned and the last owner was named Ollie Beckie; in 1917 she shaped its future to become a place for research, scientific discovery, land preservation, and educational venue. Here is a helpful link for more information if you’re interested.
I didn’t expect to be this amazed when I suggested it as a day outing. Our initial curiosity turned to amazement as we explored the place’s beauty, history, and wonder of nature! This is the kind of historic place that needs a repeat visit to soak in the beauty and history of petrified trees.
Here are some photos:
singlikewildflowers
Welcome to my blog! My name is Esther and I'm so happy you are here. I'm an avid nature photographer and a daydreaming thinker. My posts revolve around photos of nature's beauty, homeschooling adventures with my 2 kids, sporadic reflections on my child's heart condition, Bible reading reflections, gardening feats, and other mish mash things. Hopefully you'll leave encouraged, pensive, or smiling at the simple things of life. Thank you for stopping by and hope you'll find some interesting posts to read!
sing like wildflowers 
This was a great post and it was fun to travel with you via the post – the photos are so nice
LikeLike
I could’ve spent the whole afternoon there walking from bench to bench. It’s a self guided tour with a helpful handout, so being a nature nerd I would’ve wanted to stop at each spot and read about it. My 3 peeps probably wouldn’t stand for it. lol.
There were few other people walking the trails and I don’t think getting lost would be an issue. The path is pretty straightforward…unless you’re a wanderer and get off track.
There were so many photo opps that I went a bit nuts. I’m glad you enjoyed my post! Thanks Yvette.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh I bt it was easy to take photos and it really did make for a wonderful travel with me post – gosh – such a wonderful place to visit
LikeLike
That’s interesting about the Robert Louis Stevenson tree and quite an honor. We have an annual street art fair, which coincidentally starts tomorrow, and years ago I was looking at some of the vendor’s wares and one booth was petrified wood tables. This art fair has nice items for sale, but nothing the likes of a petrified wood coffee table that was then (back in the 90s) going for $5,000.00! It looks like a nice place to visit Esther.
LikeLike