Here's the sign that stands before the Painted Desert badlands at Petrified Forest National Park. (Photo by Katy Barnitz)

Editorial by Katy Barnitz

Why look at the sign when the real thing is right there?

During a recent trip to the Petrified Forest National Park, looking out at the many mounds of rocks that gradate from red to orange creating Arizona’s painted desert, something stood in my way.

An informational sign, featuring multiple pictures of the shale and sandstone hills, and a bit of information about the site obstructed the view – one picture which appears to have been taken from the exact place the viewer is standing.

Please don’t misunderstand.  I’m a lover of information; I read the captions under posters in museums, the fine print on the lower half of full page magazine ads, and the ingredients in foods which I probably would be better off not reading.

I don’t want to advocate against signs.  I don’t understand, however, why, after paying $10  to enter a park for the sole purpose of looking at this beautiful site, viewers would need a slightly sun-faded picture, printed on a bulky, badly placed sign, to fully appreciate it.

While this sign was, perhaps, not as effective as I believe a sign could be, the park featured other very successful signs.

Another sign, placed further in the park, explained the reason for crevices in the hills.  It used a simple illustration to point out the very notable cracks in the slopes.  It was purely informational and quite efficient in explaining the process through which the crevices are created.

It is similarly understandable to show visitors something they might miss out on otherwise.  Perhaps a nocturnal animal in a zoo which day-time visitors might not see.

However, the painted desert isn’t going to move, and Arizona’s climate doesn’t exactly require precautions to be taken against dense fog .

And, what I could see with my very own eyes, a full view of the site, miles and miles of brick red, burnt umber and copper in all directions, was far, far better than any picture could portray or any printer could print.