In August 2013, we went out to New Mexico for a visit, and made a day trip over to Petrified Forest National Park. I had been there in November 1982.
My wife (it was her first visit to the park) asked me why I was crying as we made our way around one of the popular loop trails. Because I was absolutely shocked at how much petrified wood had been removed from the area. I could see the ghost of what it had looked like in my mind, and what my wife though was amazing and beautiful was only a hollow shell of what was there 30 years ago.