Utah Field Guide: Exploring Escalante Petrified Forest State Park

Escalante Petrified Forest State Park is famous for having large amounts of well-preserved, petrified wood. Located half-a-mile from the town of Escalante in Southern Utah, the park is about 1300 acres, and sits adjacent to Wide Hollow Reservoir.

(Kendall) The fishing is good. We have fishing for rainbow trout, largemouth bass, and blue gill.

The park also has a 22 unit campground with a 50-person group site.

(Kendall) We have all the amenities here. We have showers, hot water, modern restrooms. It’s very comfortable. But the main draw is the petrified forest, which legend says is cursed.

(Kendall) We get letters at the park of people’s experiences after they’ve taken a piece of petrified wood home.

(Kendall) Anything from divorce to medical mishaps, automobile accidents, they’ve been attributed to taking these bits of petrified wood home with them and they will send them back in a box.

(Kendall) We’re going to take it out of the box here, and redeposit it here so others can enjoy it.

Later in the show, Jared Hargrave will show us a hike you can do in the park. For more about Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, or any of the 43 state parks in Utah, log on to stateparks.utah.gov.

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