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Petrified Forest National Park is located in Northern Arizona and it was a unique place to visit on our cross-country road trip. We spent an entire day at the park and started our day exploring from the South Gate and made several stops along the way towards the opposite end of the park at the North Gate.

The name Petrified Forest might make you think that the park is a luscious forest; however, it’s quite the opposite. Petrifaction is the result of trees having been replaced by stone via a mineralization process over millions of years; therefore, the park is filled with petrified wood and not a dense green forest filled with trees.

How To Get To Petrified Forest National Park

We came from Flagstaff, Arizona which is located 116 miles west of the national park and it took us about 1.75 hours to get here. The closest town is Holbrook, which is located 26 miles southwest of the park. Here are some other driving distances and times from popular destinations:

Grand Canyon: 200 miles, 3 hours
Albuquerque, New Mexico: 208 miles, 3 hours
Monument Valley: 186 miles, 3 hours
Phoenix, Arizona: 212 miles, 3.5 hours

TIP: Make sure you are using Google Maps and not Apple Maps when getting directions to the park. We used Apple Maps and ended up at the park’s employee housing which was so weird. Most people use Google Maps anyway, so it shouldn’t be a problem, but just wanted to note that.

What To Wear

We visited Petrified Forest National Park at the end of November when the temperatures were in the high 30s (Fahrenheit) in the morning and high 50s during the day. We dressed in layers and started out with a coat in the morning and during the day, we took off the coat because it was fairly comfortable just wearing a sweater and pants.

For shoes, we both wore boots. Candy wore her SORELs and Crystal wore her UGGs. Both boots were comfortable for all of our hikes within the park. Sneakers would work just fine too.

Hotels Near Petrified Forest National Park

The closest town is Holbrook, about 25 miles from the park, and there are several hotels here with good reviews:

La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Holbrook Petrified Forest - Clean, modern, and pet-friendly hotel with complimentary breakfast.

Brad’s Desert Inn - An older hotel in the area with quirky decor. It’s a basic hotel, but affordable.

Best Western Arizonian Inn - A little dated, but good for an overnight stay. Includes complimentary breakfast.

How To Navigate Petrified National Forest

The length of the park is 28 miles and it will take about 45 minutes to drive from one end to the other if you don’t make any stops. If you would like to make all the stops, you will definitely need a whole day.

We were originally thinking of only spending a half day here, but quickly realized that we needed an entire day instead to explore just about everything the park had to offer. If you really want to take your time exploring the park, you can even spend two days here.

You can either start at the South Gate entrance off of Highway 180 or the North Gate entrance of off Interstate 40. We started at the South Gate entrance near the Rainbow Forest Museum & Visitor Center.

TIP: If you plan on exploring the whole day, make sure to pack some snacks and drinks (and lunch if you can) as there are no eateries until you reach the other end at the Painted Desert Diner near the North Gate.

Here are the stops we made within the park that we recommend:

Rainbow Forest Museum & Visitor Center

We always like to stop at the Visitor Center to get some extra tips from a park ranger and we always end up finding out some interesting tidbits here. It was a cute little museum, but out of all the national parks we’ve been to throughout the years, this was the first time we came across a park ranger that was unfriendly. He was very unapproachable and just looked miserable. Maybe he had an off day?

But that was just one staff member at this visitor center. The rest of the park had some really nice and friendly staff members. Especially at the fee station where the attendant told us to make sure we walk our dog because all the trails are pet-friendly.

Inside the visitor center, there is a ton of information on the history of dinosaurs and some dinosaur displays as well. There is also a cute map of the park detailing out the different sites you can stop by.

Just outside of the Visitor’s Center is the Giant Logs Trail which is definitely worth a quick walk around. It’s a very short loop (0.4 miles) and the largest petrified wood is located along this trail.

Crystal Forest

Length: 0.75 mile (1.2 km) loop

This is a great stop if you want to see a bunch of petrified wood up close. Most of the wood around here is over 200 million years old. The trail is paved so it is easy to navigate the pathway. Along the way, we saw several deposits of petrified wood, and when we looked closely we can see a kaleidoscope of minerals within the wood.

The name Crystal Forest came from the fact that the trees here were once covered in sparkling quartz and crystals that developed in the hollows of the logs as the trees petrified.

Jasper Forest

This spot is an overlook with a stunning panoramic view of the ancient forest. Jasper Forest contains one of the largest accumulations of petrified wood in the world. It was originally called “First Forest” and it was the first petrified wood site available to railroad travelers in the early 1900s.

Agate Bridge

This was a super quick stop to take a look at the 100 ft bridge from an overlook. It was originally called the Natural Bridge and is a petrified log that formed a bridge. In order to keep it from collapsing, a concrete slab was installed underneath it.

Blue Mesa Trail

Length: 1 mile (1.6 km) loop

If you are limited on time and had to choose one trail, we highly suggest the Blue Mesa Trail. This trek is beyond gorgeous and offers a unique experience hiking among the colorful mudstones and claystones. It’s one of the best places in the park to explore the badlands.

The trail is paved in asphalt, so it’s a relatively easy hike, but there is one steep hill at the beginning of the hike. There are no guardrails, so make sure you keep an eye on your children and keep a tight leash on your dog.

Although the trail is only a mile loop, we spent over an hour here as we really took our time enjoying the views and snapped a million photos. The steep climb back up was a tad brutal but we all made it up safely and drank tons of water.

If you are really short on time and just driving through the park, you can still get some great views driving along the Blue Mesa Scenic Road.

If you have some extra time and love to hike off the beaten path, we suggest doing the Blue Forest Hike, which is a 2.4 mile loop trail.

The Teepees

These colorful rocks are some of the oldest in the park from 225 million years ago. You can learn about the meaning of the different colors here like the blocky brown and yellow sandstone layers tell us that they were deposited in the river channel or that the white ash layers tell us that there were volcanic eruptions.

Newspaper Rock

You can look down or use one of the free tower viewers (binocular stands) to see over 650 petroglyphs carved into the rocks, some as old as 2000 years.

Near Newspaper Rock is another stop called Puerco Pueblo where you can see foundations of old buildings from over 700 years ago built by the Pueblo people.

Historic Route 66

At this stop, you will see an old 1932 Studebaker (an American automobile manufacturer) where the famed Route 66 once cut through this park. Petrified Forest National Park is the only park in the National Park System containing a section of Historic Route 66.

You can also see a line of historic telephone poles in the distance showing the original Route 66 alignment.

Overlooks

After the Historic Route 66 pullout, you’ll come across many overlooks including Pintado Point, Kachina Point, Tawa Point, and Tiponi Point. You can also hike the Painted Desert Rim Trail which is about one mile (out and back) that starts at Tawa Point and turns around at the Painted Desert Inn and Kachina Point.

We stopped by Pintado Point and took in some of the best views as this point sits at the highest elevation within the park. You’ll get a 360-degree view of the Painted Desert badlands and you can see as far as 100 miles out from this overlook.

As we made our way towards the North Gate, we noticed the Painted Desert Inn. The national historic landmark is a museum now highlighting the building’s history and Route 66, but it was closed at the time of our visit.

Painted Desert Visitor Center

If you are hungry and didn’t pack a lunch, there is a cafe inside the Painted Desert Visitor Center. The menu is a mix of American and Mexican food and they also offer a kids menu as well as grab-and-go items.

Crystal ordered a burger and fries ($12) and Candy had the Fajita Vegetable Mix ($5). The food was pretty average and nothing special, but we’re glad it was there since we were starving.

Final Thoughts

We enjoyed learning the history and science behind this national park and would highly recommend it if you are in this region of Arizona. Plan to spend the entire day here as there is a lot more to explore than you’d expect. If you are limited on time, it’s certainly doable in a few hours too.

Our favorite hike by far was the Blue Mesa Trail. Walking in the middle of the gorgeous badlands of the painted desert was remarkable and it’s a relatively easy hike.

Although you can find petrified wood in many countries, Petrified Forest National Park has the largest concentration of petrified wood in the world which makes this one extra special. We also really appreciated that all the trails were pet-friendly.

PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK
1 Park Road, Petrified Forest, AZ 86028 (MAP)
(928) 524-6228
7-Day Pass Vehicle Entrance Fee $25
@petrifiedforestnps

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