Dates we visited: Nov 5th - Nov 7th 2020
Where we stayed: Holbrook / Petrified Forest KOA
Petrified Forest National Park was our first of three Arizona National Parks, but our last one planned before hanging up the keys to spend the winter season in Phoenix. Located in the northeast corner of Arizona, we stopped here as we made our way down from Mesa Verde. Interstate 40 splits the park into a northern section and southern section. The northern section, looks out into the Painted Desert, while the southern section contains the petrified trees that date back 225 million years!
Painted Desert
The painted desert region in the north section of the park has little to do with the petrified forest, but it is incredibly scenic. We observed the endless shades of red rock from a short trail near the Painted Desert Inn, and again from Pintado Point, both of which are right along Painted Forest road. It is possible to hike down into the desert region, and while we didn’t tackle that hike on this trip, we saw some folks on the trek down and it looked like it would be a lot of fun.
Giant Logs
After driving the length of Painted Desert road from the north entrance, through a surprisingly varied landscape, and with a quick stop the Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs, we reached the Rainbow Forest Museum at the southern end of the park. This is also the launching point for the short but awesome Giant Logs Trail. There are petrified logs strewn along this trail that date back to the Triassic period. For some rough context, that is before the rise of most dinosaurs, and it’s when the land on earth was mainly arranged in a single supercontinent called Pangaea. In other words, super old. It was mind-blowing to walk this trail and think about what has happened around these fossilized tree trunks in the time since they were alive.
We didn’t really know what to expect at Petrified Forest, and we were pleasantly surprised with the varied and scenic landscape, as well as the mind-boggling timescale of the super-old fossils. If you live in or travel to the southwest, you may have driven through this park along I-40 without even realizing it. Next time though, take the afternoon, or day, to stop and explore it!