Petrified Forest National Park Is Not What You Think
A visit to Petrified Forest National Park will give you an opportunity to stroll through history and witness these precious gems from prehistoric fossils. No doubt, from far the petrified wood looks like any dead fallen pieces of wood but observing them closely, you will see the colorful and vibrant crystallized rocks! Yes, it is of great wonder, that out in the desert of Arizona, you can see these fossilized rocks.
Along with these treasures from the Triassic period, the park is home to some beautiful and colorful badlands all around.
A beautiful piece of Petrified wood on the Agate House Trail- Petrified Forest National Park
We planned for two days to explore Petrified National Forest. The Park has a 28 miles scenic drive with two visitor centers. Rainbow Forest Museum is at the south end of the park near Highway 180, while the Painted Desert Visitor Center is located at the north end of the Park near I-40.
Scenic Drive Painted Desert - Petrified Forest National Park
Day 1
Painted Desert Area
This area is situated at the northern end of the park. Painted Desert Visitor Center is located here, which is a must-stop attraction in the Park. We recommend talking to a Ranger, browsing the exhibits and watching the 20-minute introductory film, before getting onto the park’s scenic 28-mile drive.
As the name suggests, the landscape is just tremendously bright and beautiful. It feels as if some artist came down to this area, to spread the joys of color all around. The vivid, vibrant and multi-hued landscape just keeps beaming as the sunlight falls onto it. Colorful clays, sandstones, petrified wood, and basalt are the important building materials in the creation of these deserts.
Tiponi Point Painted Desert
As you start your drive, you will first come across Tiponi Point, probably one of the best overlooks for viewing the painted desert. Next up is Tawa Point. Highly recommended Painted Desert Rim Trail starts from this point. This trail takes you through juniper shrubland atop the volcanic rock to the historic Painted Desert Inn. As you walk by, you will come across some information boards about the flora and fauna of this region put up by the park officials. The trail is an easy 1 mile out and back trail.
Painted Desert Inn
At the end of the trail, take time to explore the National Historic landmark – Painted Desert Inn. The Inn has been restored by the Park officials, but you can see the amazing Hopi paintings and murals that were painted by artist Fred Kabotie. Also, stop by at Kachina Point, before heading back to your car at Tawa Point.
Chinde Point - Red badlands of the Painted Desert
Next up is Chinde Point, another marvelous overlook to view the painted deserts. In Navajo, chinde means “ghost” left behind when one dies. The point is aptly named since you can see the traces of all the fossils left behind since million years ago.
Overlooking the Beautiful Red Badlands from the Rim Trail
Continuing driving south, for some more spectacular views of the pinkish-orangish painted deserts, stop by at Pintado Point, Nizhoni Point, Whipple Point & Lacey Point
1932 Studebaker along the Route 66
As a section of the historic original Route 66 used to pass through the park, to mark the same, you will come across a pullout for some photo-op. A 1932 Studebaker is stationed at this pull out for you to pose with it and relive that era!
Puerco Pueblo
Along with the splendid landscape and the fossil rocks, the park provides us an opportunity to connect and experience with our ancestral civilization. There is a short 0.3-mile loop trail, highlighting the petroglyphs and Puebloan homes occupied between 1250-1380 CE.
Newspaper Rock
True to its name, it’s nothing but a rock on which our ancestors wrote their stories! This rock displays more than 650 petroglyphs and some of them are 2000 years old.
The Tepees
Driving south from the Newspaper rock, you will start seeing badlands formation that are stark different than the ones seen in the Painted Desert area. These badlands are more cone-shaped hills than dune-shaped with striped layers of reds, pinks, blues, greys, purples and white.
A definite must stop pull out area of the park before heading towards the scenic Blue Mesa loop drive.
Blue Mesa
Blue Mesa Trail is a 1-mile loop trail through woods and blue badlands. This area consists of the Chinle formations which were deposited over 200 million years ago. Blue badlands consists of sculpted buttes and hills with a greyish blue tinge to them. The trailhead is located on the Blue Mesa Loop Road, which is off the main scenic drive at Blue Mesa Sun shelter.
Blue Badlands is really eye-pleasing dotted with rainbow petrified wood all around. These hills are made of Bentonite Clay, which swell up with moisture and as it dries up it shrinks and cracks creating an elephant-skin surface. This trail has a grade of 35%, but once you are in the basin, it’s an easy walk.
Agate Bridge
Agate Bridge is a bridge made up of a 110-foot long petrified log! This stone log, is harder than the surrounding sandstone, thereby standing firm resisting the erosion. Thus this log remained suspended, as the rocks beneath it got washed away.
Crystal Forest Area
As the sun was setting down, since the park road closes after dusk, Crystal Forest Area was the last stop of our day. This is a paved 0.75-mile loop trail that takes one through a badlands landscape with many picturesque petrified logs all around.
On day one, we covered most of the northern area of the park. Calling it a night, we took some amazing memories with us on our Day 1 adventure at Petrified Forest National Park.
Day 2
Rainbow Forest Museum and Visitor Center
The next day morning, rising early we entered the park from the south entrance on Highway 180 to the Rainbow Forest Museum and Visitor Center. Similar to the other visitor center there are numerous exhibits here too.
There are in total three trails starting from this location. First up is Giant Logs Trail. This is a 0.4-mile easy trail that features some of the giant petrified logs of the park including the “Old Faithful”.
Giant Logs Trail Petrified Forest National Park
The other two trails “Long Logs” and “Agate House” also have their trailhead in this area. The trailhead for both the trails starts from the same location. You can combine both the trails into a loop trail of 2.1 miles. From the trailhead, once you hike 0.4 miles, continue on the Long Log trail instead of going towards Agate House. After hiking a mile into the long logs of petrified woods and shards of crystals, Long Log Trail meets the Agate House Trail. In 0.3 mile, you will see the rehabilitated 700-year-old pueblo standing tall amongst the petrified wood
Jasper Forest
From the Rainbow Forest Museum Visitor Center, we drove ~ 7 miles north to see the last and most surreal section of the park – Jasper Forest. This is one of the off the beaten path hikes of the park, so make sure you carry the park’s information from their website.
Alternately, if you use All Trails, download the map prior to you start your hike. This is a moderate hike of 2.5 miles out and back from the Jasper Forest Parking Lot. It actually follows Old 1930s road into the First Forest. You will get to see some amazing views all around while strolling through the garden of petrified wood.
The woods that you see in this area, are some of the first collection of petrified wood, that travelers saw when they came by wagon. Probably one of the best locations to capture rainbow-colored rocks! This is the largest deposits of petrified wood in the park. There is a very little elevation on the trail, but keep an eye on the direction you are headed as there are no markings on the hike.
Another good tip, before going on the hike, is to talk to a Park ranger at the visitor center, to check the current weather and trail conditions as it can be muddy in some places. At the end of this Old Forest road, you will loop around a geological feature called “Eagle Nest Rock”. The top of the feature fell in Jan 1941 during heavy rains, but you can still see the base in the center of the loop.
After the Jasper Forest exploration, we had completed our short and sweet journey at the park and were very thrilled that we saved the best for last!
Purple & White Petrified Wood - Petrified Forest National Park
Petrified Forest National Park holds in the truest sense some of nature’s finest gems! Petrified wood that you get to see and feel is very unique and gives you a timeline of geographical changes that these areas have gone through. No doubt these crystallized rocks are some of the wonderful geological formations that you will experience.
Along with petrified wood, the blue mesas and the painted desert region are also so colorful, that they will surely bring joy to your heart. Not to forget the remnants of ancestral civilization that you get to see and feel throughout the park.
All these combined, Petrified Forest National Park has a lot to offer for visitors. The Park can be covered in two days, and it is definitely worth to take a trip to see these amazing geological features! Please remember to follow the 7 principles of leave no trace.
Beautiful Sunset at Petrified Forest National Park
