La Leona Petrified Forest. El Calafate - ARGENTINA

Direccion: A 110 kilometros de El Calafate

Millions of years ago, Patagonia was an environment where there was a warm and humid climate, abundant vegetation, with forests of giant trees. At the end of the middle Jurassic period, intense volcanic activity occurred, coinciding with the formation of the Andes mountain range, which buried these forests under a dense layer of ash. Throughout millennia, the mineral components carried out the petrification process, gradually replacing the organic matter that, nevertheless, maintained its external appearance.

This property is protected from the wind by Cerro Los Hornos and because it is also a natural depression of the land. Being in the steppe area the environment is very arid and the weather conditions in general are very pleasant.

Unlike the petrified forests, these trees of La Leona were dragged as much by the rivers as by the glaciers, until the place that today they are. It is estimated that 150 million years have passed since the petrification until the present.