Take a Self-Guided Tour of Giant Logs

This is less a hike and more a greatest-hits museum tour that happens to be outdoors. A paved-and-gravel loop shaped like a butterfly winds through one of the densest concentrations of petrified logs anywhere on Earth — massive trunks of ancient conifers turned to stone in jewel tones of red, orange, and deep purple. The centerpiece is Old Faithful, a behemoth log so large it looks like it was dropped here by a giant. The hard-surface trail is flat and accessible, with numbered posts keyed to a free booklet from the Rainbow Forest Museum that explains the geology behind each specimen. You can knock this out in under half an hour, but you will want to linger. The colors in these logs are genuinely jaw-dropping, especially when the light hits them right. Perfect for families with small kids, anyone with mobility concerns, or geology nerds who want to stand next to a 200-million-year-old tree and feel appropriately small.