José Ormaechea Petrified Wood

1: Secretaría de Turismo de Sarmiento. 2 y 3: Marcelo Fuhr

It is located 38 km away to the South of Sarmiento and you can get there through a rubbled route. Once in this reservation , you will come across Forest Rangers that will guide you in the tour.
The wood belongs to the Paleozoic Era ( Lower Tertiary ) and is approximately 65 million years old.

These petrified trees, witnesses of Prehistory, make up an indescribable beauty given by the hardness of the rock, the colour of the different geologic strata and the heavy silence of respect to nature.

Itspetrified trunks are part of the process made by millions of years on the wood. You must remember that at the beginning of the Tertiary Era , the Andes Range rises and thus, prevents the pacific humidity from passing producing eruptions. The ash and lava deposits spread giving way to a slow process of transformation of these trunks into stone.

    TheSalamanquense is the first testimony of the Atlantic Ocean marine entrance in this area.
    Itis approximately 65.000.000 years old with primitive species of the coniferous family
    ( though it is possible to observe rests of palm trees) that make us imagine a sub ecuatorial region with abundant woods and lagoons inhabited by a varied and numerous fauna. We can confirm this last information due to the Paleontologic findings of Sarmieno Department.
    Currently,the landscape is desolating and amazing due to the arid loneliness of this steppe but you will be certain that this area was once an orchard wood that is nowadays hard to imagine.

    PETRIFICATION PROCESS
    The petrified wood is the transmutation of the organic substance into a rock through a process that can be described as follows:
    At the beginning of the Tertiary Era , the Andes Range starts raising and prevents the currents of humid air from the Pacific to the Atlantic from passing.
    There are volcanic eruptions simultaneously and the ashes as well as the lava spread giving way to the slow process of organic transformation - absorption, impregnation, substitution and mutation of the molecular nature keeping its exterior appearance.
    The outcrops of these extraordinary petrified trunks, the Moonlike landscape and the surrounding hills with varied colours allow you to observe the different geographical strata which make this place a unique attraction that cannot be missed.
    The Petrified Wood Provincial Park of Sarmiento has Forest Rangers, guides and other services.
    It is open from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm from October to March, and from 9.00 am to 6.30 pm from April to September.
    At the moment, there is an integral plan in which all the institutions interested in the protection and exploitation of the park participate.
    Location
    It is located 38 km away from Sarmiento City to the Southeast. You can get there through a route in high season, from December 15th. to March 15th.. There are daily excursions in vans departing from the tourism office at 10.45 am and 3.45 pm .