Petrified Forest National Park is a surprising little gem that lies in the Painted Desert of Arizona just off of I-40 which makes it super convenient and also a nice pitstop on the endless western highway that replaced Route 66. Speaking of which, the old mother road herself goes through the park just north of 40. There’s little trace of it now but there’s a marker to show where it once traversed through the desert. The Visitor Center has some great exhibits and an example of a really pretty petrified log but the true beauty of the park lies a little further south off the Petrified Forest Road. But first, you’ve got to see the beautiful viewpoints like Tiponi, Tawa, Pintado, and Chinde Point which all prominently feature painted badlands and the Chinde Mesa off in the distance.

From the northern Painted Desert Visitor Center there’s 26 miles of beautiful road to explore with plenty of hikes, viewpoints, and lots of petrified trees until you reach the southern Rainbow Forest Museum. Along the way be sure to check out the Ancestral Puebloan Puerco Pueblo, the striped Tepees badland formations, and the amazing Newspaper Rock, which has over 650 petroglyphs with some being over 2,000 years old! The first three photos are from Puerco Pueblo with the latter three being from Newspaper Rock. Both have incredible petroglyphs.

My favorite hikes in the park are the Blue Forest hike on the Blue Mesa and the Crystal Forest stroll just off Petrified Forest Road. From the Crystal Forest it’s just a few more miles through beautiful Painted Desert viewpoints until you reach the Giant Logs, Long Logs, and Agate House hikes at the southern end of the park. I wasn’t able to do those hikes on my last December 30th visit on account of not enough sunlight but I will update the site further when I revisit that beautiful area eastern Arizona.