Petrified Wood

I have been around chunks of petrified wood almost all my life. I commonly have had a piece or two or more sitting in my front yard. Petrified wood is commonly found throughout the Colorado Plateau and even today. Here are the current regulations from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management:

Petrified wood can be collected too for personal use — up to 25 pounds each day, plus one piece, but no more than 250 pounds in any calendar year (43 CFR 3622). These materials must be for your personal collection and cannot be sold or traded.

Any commercial gathering of petrified wood, unless on private property, must be done pursuant to a permit from the government. Of course, you cannot collect any samples in any protected areas such as state of national parks or monuments. My main experience in viewing large quantities of petrified wood came from visits to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. But recently, we visited Utah's Escalante Petrified Forest State Park near Escalante, Utah. I was almost overwhelmed at the quantity and beauty of the petrified wood in this park. Access to see the rocks is much more difficult than the National Park. In Utah, you have to hike over a mountain on a very steep trail. In Arizona, you can drive to see most of the wood.