Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest sits high in the desert of northeastern Arizona, on the Colorado Plateau, where a single park road runs about 28 miles from one end to the other. Along it, 225-million-year-old trees turned to multi-colored crystal lie scattered across a painted landscape that ranks among the most surreal in the American West. The park also protects ancient petroglyphs and one of the largest concentrations of Late Triassic fossils found anywhere on the planet, so what looks like an empty desert is really an open book of very old stories.

The petrified wood is the signature draw. In the Late Triassic this was a warm, wet lowland threaded with rivers, where tall conifers grew among early dinosaurs and giant amphibians. Fallen trees washed into the channels and were quickly buried by mud and ash, sealing them away from the air. Over the ages silica-rich water seeped in and replaced the wood with stone, preserving the grain while iron and other minerals stained it in brilliant colors. Later the land rose and eroded, stripping away the covering layers and setting the stone logs out on the surface, from small bright fragments to great fallen trunks and even a natural log bridge.

The park's northern reaches open onto the Painted Desert, a sweep of badlands banded in reds, oranges, purples, and grays that glow and shift as the light changes. Places like Blue Mesa, where blue-gray hills are strewn with logs, and the Crystal Forest, thick with fallen trees, show the wood at its densest. Add the petroglyphs and the ancestral village, and Petrified Forest becomes a park small enough to see in a day yet rich enough to reward far longer.

• North Entrance, off Interstate 40 at exit 311 near Holbrook, is open year-round and sits by the Painted Desert Visitor Center and the badlands of the Painted Desert. Most travelers coming across I-40 start here.
• South Entrance, off US-180 southeast of Holbrook, is also open year-round and opens near the fields of petrified wood in the Rainbow Forest area. The 28-mile park road ties the two entrances together, so you can enter at one and exit at the other rather than doubling back.
• From the west, come out of Holbrook, about 18 to 25 miles away, on either I-40 or US-180. Flagstaff lies roughly two hours to the west on I-40, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a few hours to the east on the same interstate, which makes the park an easy stop on a cross-country desert drive.

• The Crystal Forest Trail is a 0.75-mile paved loop through the highest concentration of fallen petrified logs in the park, where the ground glitters with mineral-filled wood in every direction.
• The Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark is a restored 1940 building with original murals and Route 66 history, perched above the Painted Desert as a museum and bookstore.
• Puerco Pueblo is a 0.3-mile loop through a 100-room ancestral Puebloan village lived in about 650 years ago, with petroglyphs pecked into nearby rocks.
• Blue Mesa is a 0.75-mile loop through badlands of blue, purple, and gray bentonite clay, widely called the park's most striking terrain, with petrified logs balanced on the eroding slopes.

People have lived in and crossed this desert for thousands of years, and the park still holds their traces. Puerco Pueblo was once a village of about a hundred rooms where ancestral Puebloan people farmed, gathered, and watched the sky. Nearby, boulders like Newspaper Rock are covered with hundreds of petroglyphs pecked into the dark stone, a dense record left by the people who passed this way. Some of the rock art appears to track the sun and the seasons.

The ancestors of today's Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and other Puebloan peoples moved through and settled this land, and these nations keep living ties to it and to its ancient sites. The park works with descendant communities to care for and explain these places as living heritage rather than as empty ruins, and visitors are asked to treat the petroglyphs and pueblo with the same respect they would give any sacred place.

Newcomers came for the stone logs. As word spread in the late 1800s, so much petrified wood was hauled off by souvenir hunters and even dynamited for the crystals inside that Arizona residents pushed to protect it. Their effort paid off in 1906, when Petrified Forest became a national monument, one of the very first protected under the new Antiquities Act. In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps built trails, walls, and buildings here, and the Painted Desert Inn took on the Pueblo Revival look and Hopi murals it wears today.

The monument grew over the decades, and in 1962 Congress made Petrified Forest a full national park. Later expansions added more of the Painted Desert and more fossil beds, and scientists still dig here, uncovering Triassic plants and creatures that lived alongside the forest before it fell. The park's history runs from a 200-million-year-old woodland to ancient villages to a 20th-century highway, all in one stretch of desert.

• Petrified Forest is the only national park that contains a section of historic Route 66. The old road itself is long gone here, but a rusting 1932 automobile and a line of telephone poles mark exactly where the Mother Road once crossed the park.
• The colors in the wood come from minerals, not paint. Iron makes the reds and yellows, and other minerals add purples and blues, so no two polished pieces look quite the same.
• The park receives so many pieces of stolen wood in the mail that staff keep a file of 'conscience letters,' notes from visitors mailing back rocks they took and later regretted, often blaming years of bad luck.
• Blue Mesa's blue-gray hills are made of bentonite clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry, which is part of why the badlands erode into such smooth, banded shapes.
• The park holds one of the world's largest deposits of Late Triassic fossils, and paleontologists have named brand-new species of ancient reptiles and amphibians from bones found here.
• Some petrified logs contain quartz crystals and even amethyst inside their hollow centers, which is exactly why so many were dynamited before the area was protected.
• The Painted Desert Inn was designed in part by architect Mary Colter, and its Hopi murals were painted by celebrated Hopi artist Fred Kabotie.
• Despite the name, there is no standing forest to walk through. The 'forest' is thousands of fallen stone logs lying on the desert floor, the remains of trees that stood more than 200 million years ago.

• An entrance fee applies (per vehicle, good for seven days). Check the park website for current rates, and interagency annual passes are accepted.
• The 28-mile paved park road connects Interstate 40 in the north to US-180 in the south, and most visitors simply drive straight through, stopping at overlooks and trails along the way.
• There are no services inside the park except a small cafe at the Painted Desert Inn, and there is no drinking water along the road, so come prepared with water, fuel, snacks, and sun protection.
• Holbrook, about 18 miles west, has full services, including gas, food, and lodging, and is the closest place to fill up before or after your drive.

Yes, Petrified Forest charges a per-vehicle entrance fee that is good for seven days, and interagency annual passes are accepted. Check the National Park Service website for the current rate. Unlike many parks, this one has set daily hours and closes at night, so plan to visit during the day and check current hours before you go.

No. Removing petrified wood, or any natural or cultural object, from the park is a federal crime that carries fines, and it robs future visitors of the experience, so leave every piece exactly where you find it. Even small pieces add up when thousands of people are tempted. The park keeps a file of 'conscience letters' from visitors who mailed back rocks they took and later regretted. If you want a souvenir, you can legally buy petrified wood from shops outside the park that source it from private land, so there is no reason to take any.

There are two entrances, both open year-round: a north entrance off Interstate 40 at exit 311 near Holbrook, and a south entrance off US-180 southeast of Holbrook. A single 28-mile paved park road connects them, so you can enter at one entrance and exit at the other instead of backtracking. Most travelers coming across I-40 start in the north, near the Painted Desert, and finish in the south near the fields of petrified wood.

Very little. Aside from a small cafe at the Painted Desert Inn, there are no restaurants, gas stations, or drinking water along the park road, so come prepared with water, fuel, snacks, and sun protection before you enter. Holbrook, about 18 miles west, has full services and is the best place to fill up. On a hot day, carrying plenty of water is important because shade is scarce.

Petrified Forest is the only national park that contains a section of historic Route 66. The old pavement is gone here, but a rusting 1932 automobile and a row of telephone poles mark exactly where the famous Mother Road once crossed the park. It is an easy stop for anyone tracing Route 66 across northern Arizona, and it pairs the highway's road-trip nostalgia with 200-million-year-old stone logs.

Spring and fall bring the most comfortable weather for driving the park road and walking the short trails, with mild days and clear light on the wood and the badlands, though spring winds can whip across the open plateau. Summer days are hot and bright, eased a little by the high elevation and stirred by afternoon monsoon storms, so morning is the best time to explore. Winter is cold and often windy, and a rare dusting of snow on the colorful hills is a beautiful sight. In any season, the low golden light of morning and evening is when the park looks its finest.

Blue Mesa, with its banded blue-gray badlands and scattered logs, is widely called the most striking terrain in the park. The Crystal Forest Trail winds through the densest field of fallen stone logs, and the Painted Desert overlooks in the north are stunning at sunrise and sunset. For history, Puerco Pueblo and the nearby petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock, along with the restored Painted Desert Inn, round out a visit. A drive down the full 28-mile road links most of these.

You can see the highlights in a few hours by driving the 28-mile park road and stopping at the main overlooks and a short trail or two. To walk several trails, linger at the pueblo and the Painted Desert Inn, and not feel rushed, give it most of a day. Because the park closes at night, plan your visit to fit within the daily open hours.

Yes. Petrified Forest is unusually pet-friendly, and leashed pets are welcome on nearly all of the maintained trails, which is not the case at most national parks. Bring plenty of water for them, since the desert is hot and there is no water along the road, and never leave a pet in a vehicle. Check the park website for the current pet rules before you go.

There is no hotel or developed campground inside Petrified Forest. Backpackers can camp in the wilderness area with a free permit, but most visitors stay in Holbrook, about 18 miles west, a classic Route 66 town with motels, or in Winslow and other nearby towns. Because the park closes at night, planning a place to stay outside the boundary is part of any overnight trip.