Tom, Aly and I visited Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. This is one of the few pet-friendly US national parks. Dogs are allowed on the trails throughout the park as long as they’re on-leash. They are not allowed in any buildings.
Painted Desert Visitor Center
We started at the Painted Desert Visitor Center. It has nice facilities with various exhibits and a theater. It also has a large souvenir store and cafeteria. The parking lot has a large section for RVs and, being a cold Thursday morning in mid-January, it was practically empty. We decided to unhitch the Jeep and leave the camper at the visitor center in case any sites were difficult to access with our full rig.
The park has one main road, appropriately named Petrified Forest Road. It runs between the Painted Desert Visitor Center, at the north and of the park, and the Rainbow Museum and Visitor Center at the south end. When we reached the park entrance, just past the visitor center, we couldn’t find our America the Beautiful National Parks Pass. As a US veteran, Tom has been getting the free annual military pass. Unable to find it, we were prepared to pay the $25 park entrance fee. However, we were happy to learn from the friendly gate attendant, that the park service is now issuing lifetime military passes. So, not only did we save the $25 daily entrance fee, Tom now has a free lifetime pass!
Tawa Point
Continuing on Petrified Forest Road from the entrance leads past multiple pullouts. From those you can view the beautiful Painted Desert, which is the main attraction at the north end of the park. We parked at Tawa Point trailhead and walked the .5 mile trail to the Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark.
From there we followed a trail down into the wilderness area where we walked among the colorful layers of history that make up the painted desert landscape. It’s there where we got our first glimpse of the petrified logs for which the park is named.
Route 66
Continuing south on Petrified Forest Road we reached the Route 66 turnout. A sign and old Studebacker mark the location where Historic Route 66 previously ran through the park. Petrified Forest is the only national park with a portion of route 66 running through it. This explains the huge selection of Route 66 souvenirs available at the park stores!
Puerco Pueblo
We left the Painted Desert behind us and continued south on Petrified Forest Road to the Puerco Pueblo ruins. The .3 mile loop trail includes informational signs along the way.
Many of the signs provide interpretations of the ancient petroglyphs including this one marking my favorite/least favorite day of the year, the Summer Solstice!
Newspaper Rock
From Puerco Pueblo it’s just a short drive to Newspaper Rock where visitors can view this well-preserved rock with more than 600 petroglyphs. Some are estimated to be more than 2000 years old.
The viewing spot is on an overlook above Newspaper rock so if you want detailed pictures be sure to bring a camera with a good zoom lens!
Blue Mesa
The Blue Mesa Loop is a turnoff near the middle of Petrified Forest Road. It’s the only other road in the park and, like Petrified Forest Road, the Blue Mesa Loop is paved. This 4 mile loop road has many areas where you can stop and view the colorful blueish striped layers in the surrounding rock formations. You can also hike a 1 mile trail into the colorful badlands.
We reached Blue Mesa in the middle of the day and were a bit disappointed. Maybe, had we viewed it closer to sunrise or sunset, the colors would have been more impressive. The name obviously implies blue hills and the marketing photos show brilliant purple layers. But, we just saw a lot of gray… maybe with a hint of purple.
Agate Bridge
Driving south from Blue Mesa Loop leads to a turnout for the Agate Bridge. This 110 foot long petrified log is estimated to be 217 million years old. It spans a gully and is supported by a concrete bridge that was built in 1917 to help delay its inevitable collapse.
Jasper Forest
The Jasper Forest turnout overlooks a large area of desert scattered with petrified logs.
Crystal Forest
Crystal Forest is one of our favorite sites in Petrified National Forest. The .75 loop trail winds through beautiful petrified logs allowing you to view them up close. No matter how many I saw, I couldn’t help but click my fingernails on them to verify that they’re actually hard like rocks instead of soft like wood.
Rainbow Forest Museum and Giant Logs Trail
The last stop on our tour of Petrified Forest is the Rainbow Forest Museum and Giant Logs Trail. The museum offers a variety of paleontological exhibits and a small gift shop. The Giant Logs Trail is similar, and just as cool, as Crystal Forest. The .4 mile loop trail leads you past many large petrified logs. It has multiple paths leading in various directions and is in the process of being expanded and improved.
During our 5-hour visit to Petrified Forest National Park, we saw all except two of the sites that are described on the park map. Unfortunately, we missed Long Logs and Agate House. One 2.6 mile out-and-back trail leads first to Long Logs then to Agate house. That is the longest developed trail in the park. I was disappointed to miss it but we were racing yet another snow storm and wanted to make our way farther south before it hit!
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