Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

For years and years, we've been meaning to turn off I-40 and visit the Painted Desert (and yes, I've been earwormed by the relevant 10,000 Maniacs song all day) and the Petrified Forest - all in one National Park in Central Arizona, and stunning in a way that no photos can ever do justice.  So stripes of striated rock - and then the remains of a tropical forest some 225 million years ago.  Which gave me pause for considerable anxiety, as I looked at the huge petrified logs: will this some day turn back into swamp and tropical forest?  Will humanity (once it's destroyed itself this time around) re-evolve, and then what?  What will it do with all the ruins and fossils of today?  (etc.). But in the meantime, it was stunning, and silent, and hugely worth the visit - we could have spent so much longer there, taking long, rather than tiny trails ...