The Petrified Forest — Attraction in Calistoga

These petrified trees are huge and in amazing condition and well worth seeing. What you do is spend 30-45 minutes (you could do it more quickly, or you could take a guided tour and spend more time) walking in a loop that has some gentle uphills and downhills. There are a couple of dozen stations around the loop where you can look at a number of truly huge petrified trees. My favorite was the "Queen," which was 2,500 years old when it was leveled by the blast from a volcanic eruption 3.5 million years ago. You have to bring some of your own imagination to the place. It's not as though they have animatronic machines everywhere, or any whizzy technology to make you appreciate the trees, but when you contemplate how cool it is that these things are made out of rock, well, it's really impressive. My young boys (both under age 5) enjoyed running around outdoors and climbing some of the non-petrified rock formations. They also loved the gift shop, which is well stocked with inexpensive fossils...

Drove all the way across the country and were told "The outdoors is closed" But dont wory... The GIFT SHOP is still open!!

We were told by the employee in the gift shop that the outdoors was closed. She said the owners were concerned about the air quality that their patrons would have to breathe. Isnt that my concern???

Yet the gift shop was open and their employees had to work.

Yes we understand there is smoke in the air from the fires.

Yes we were told to call back Thurs or Fri and they might be "letting people visit" if the air quality improves.

So we called back just as instructed and were are told a different story today. Todays story is the park is closed for tree maintenance. Were then told it is closed clear through Thanksgiving. But the GIFT SHOP will be OPEN...!

If you're so intrigued to see a petrified forest I would suggest going elsewhere in the country unless you call ahead of time and get "PERMISSION" to be outdoors and spend your money.

It's pretty simple... be honest...

This is a must see place with the biggest petrified trees in the world. The 20 minute easy hikes takes you up into the forest and across ancient ash flows that look like concrete. Throughout the hike are many different petrified trees. For more intrepid folks, there is another 20 minute loop to the meadow.

This is a private family owned park with an affordable admittance fee. They committed to supporting & sharing this natural wonder. There are nice clean restrooms, picnic tables, and a gift shop with cold drinks.

There were naturalists available that could answer our questions. They were very knowledgeable!

After our hike we enjoyed a cold soda under the shade of a 600+ year old Oak tree.

An extra bonus: we were able to bring our leashed dog.

Wear sturdy shoes - the trail is good and wide, but has lots of stones. I regretted wearing sandals.

It was 95° the day we were there. There is plenty of shade on the trail and several well placed benches if you...