Stop 11: Counting Knots
Can you count the knots along this long log? Every knot shows where there was once a branch. Clues like this help us imagine what the tree looked like.

Lots of knots means this tree had lots of branches, which fell away as it decayed. Tree bark also falls off dead trees. So, though the surface may look like bark, it is just the outer surface of the wood.

The log’s length tells us this tree was tall. Two trees along the Long Logs Trail measure 137 and 141 feet long. This indicates that some of the trees may have approached at least 200 feet (61 m) tall when alive.

Paleontologists search for clues eroding out of the Chinle Formation badlands to capture what the Late Triassic environment once looked like. Some of the earliest remains of dinosaurs are found alongside invertebrates, freshwater fish, amphibians, synapsids, and the dominant group at the time, known as archosaurs. These creatures are on display in the Rainbow Forest Museum.