Puerto San Julian - Jaramillo Petrified Forest National Park - Caleta Olivia
Chile 2023
Settlements in Argentina, at least in this part of it, look very strange.
In cities, usually only a few central streets are paved.
All the other streets are just gravel roads.
The vast majority of houses look as if they are unfinished.
The street in Puerto San Julian where we lived
Today we are heading to the petrified forest park - Bosques Petrificados de Jaramillo National Park.
After we once saw a petrified tree in a museum long ago, I had been eager to see one in its "natural habitat".
And here in Argentina, there is such a place!
On the way, we saw a fox several times, but it was so nimble that we couldn’t get a good photo.
To the park, it’s 50 km from the main road on gravel one way.
I’m driving on the gravel road.
I like driving off-road where there is almost no one around and I’m not afraid.
On the way to Bosques Petrificados de Jaramillo National Park
Here there are unusual landscapes, mountains of interesting shapes and colors
Once, about 150 million years ago, huge araucaria trees grew here.
These araucarias were the ancestors of modern araucarias. They reached 50 meters in height and several meters in diameter.
Their lifespan averaged 1,000 years.
Everything changed when volcanic eruptions began here, coinciding with the start of the rise of the Andes Mountains.
This caused an interesting effect — giant trees were buried under a layer of ash and lava.
Thanks to the ash and lava, the fallen trees remained in an oxygen-free environment.
This preserved their original structure.
However, water enriched with minerals seeped through the ash.
It replaced the trees’ organic structure with silica and other minerals.
That is how petrified trees were “born.”
I find this fascinating. A tree that turned into stone.
Petrified trees of incredible colors. From a distance, it seems like a real tree...
Underfoot - countless fragments of petrified trees. All these "little stones" are very beautiful; I wanted to take them all with me. But Serzhyk wouldn’t let me :) He said that nothing can be taken from the park, that it is humanity’s heritage...
The structure of the tree has been preserved perfectly. It’s hard to believe it’s stone.
We walked along the trail among giant petrified trees that are approximately 150 million years old
This tree has a diameter of one and a half meters and a length of 50 meters (according to the sign under the tree)
These trees were only discovered in 1925. They “appeared” on the surface thanks to soil erosion
On the way from the park, we saw these interesting animals — maras. They look like hares. Also very nimble. Serzhyk tried to catch up with them, but in vain. He was only able to photograph them from a distance.
Our route for today: Puerto San Julian → Bosques Petrificados de Jaramillo National Park → Caleta Olivia (overnight stay). We traveled 445 km.
