Petrified Forest - Why is it so scared?

Petrified trees; they can't run, but they can hide.
After reading of a fossil redwood 26 ft in diameter, in the book Lost In My Own Backyard, we set out across Lamar in search of the tree.
A steep climb past a lone bull and above a herd of groaning, grunting bison brought us to several petrified tree parts sticking from the slope. Among them was a huge tree laying on its side.








Here is a close up of the wood grain. Parts of the tree were crystallized, other parts had turned to opal.
Still, no 26 ft stumps... The topo map's "Fossil Forest" was marked a few hillsides over to the east, but from the description in the book, I felt the big one must be more of a climb up the hill.
The trail rose steeply and opened on to a windswept plateau.
As we were standing there wondering where a 26 ft redwood could hide, a rustic-looking man popped out of the forest to our right. He introduced himself as "Cliff from Cooke City."
He was also in search of the elusive redwood. He had visited the tree years before. So we followed him off through the forest and out onto another grassy plateau where he related a close encounter with a mountain lion he'd had a few years ago. We backtracked to where we'd met him and finally found the tree just below that spot. It was actually visible from the road far below in Lamar.
The redwood was pretty incredible.
I climbed up in it and felt like a little bird in a nest on a cliff.
We thanked Cliff for his help and left him to his wildlife filming.
View from Mt. Washburn looking toward FAIRYLAND!
The slopes of Dunraven, covered in mule's ear sunflowers.