Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park
| Ginkgo Petrified Forest / Wanapum Recreational Area |
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| Washington State Park | |
 Petrified logs at the park interpretive center
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| Country | United States |
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| State | Washington |
| County | Kittitas |
| Elevation | 791 ft (241 m) |
| Coordinates | 46°56′56″N 120°00′10″W / 46.94889°N 120.00278°WCoordinates: 46°56′56″N 120°00′10″W / 46.94889°N 120.00278°W |
| Area | 7,470 acres (3,023 ha) |
| Established | 1935 |
| Management | Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission |
  Location in the state of Washington
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| Website: Ginkgo Petrified Forest / Wanapum Recreational Area | |
| Designated | 1965 |
Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park/Wanapum Recreational Area is a 7,470-acre (3,020 ha) Washington state park at Vantage, Washington that includes 27,000 feet (8,200 m) of shoreline on the Wanapum Reservoir on the Columbia River. Petrified wood was discovered in the region in the early 1930s, which led to creation of the park as a national historic preserve.
The strata it lies in is identified as the Miocene Epoch of the Neogene period (15.5 MYa). Over 50 species are found petrified at the site, including ginkgo, sweetgum, redwood, Douglas fir, walnut, spruce, elm, maple, horse chestnut, cottonwood, magnolia, madrone, sassafras, yew, and witch hazel.
During the Miocene epoch, around 15.5 million years ago, the region was lush and wet, home to many plant species now extinct. A number of these trees were buried in volcanic ash, and the organic matter in the tree trunks was gradually replaced by minerals in the groundwater; the resulting petrified wood was protected for millennia by flows of basalt. Near the end of the last ice age, the catastrophic Missoula Floods (about 15,000 BC) eroded the basalt, exposing some of the petrified wood.
In prehistoric times, the Wanapum tribe of Native Americans inhabited the region along the Columbia River from the Beverly Gap to the Snake River. The Wanapum people first welcomed white strangers in the area during Lewis and Clark's expeditions across the United States. They lived by fishing and agriculture, carved over 300 petroglyphs into the basalt cliffs, and may have used the petrified wood exposed by erosion for arrowheads and other tools. According to documentation at the park, Wanapum never fought white settlers, did not sign a treaty with them, and, as a result, retained no federally recognized right to the land.
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