Petrified Forest National Park and The Painted Desert

This is by far one of my favorite National Parks in the Southwest. We entered from the northern part of the park and drove the loop around through the Painted Desert and then back across the highway through the Blue Mesa and down into the Petrified Forest. Depending on your interest and your time availability, I might recommend going the opposite way and entering from the south. By the time we got to the Petrified Forest section we were fairly tired and had to regroup for the short hikes in this part of the park.

First, we have downloaded the HearHere app and as we drove from Holbrook, AZ to the National Park, we enjoyed listening to some of the history and legends of the area. The most interesting part for me was the "Curse of the Petrified Forest". It is illegal to take any pieces of the petrified trees and apparently, people who have done so have shipped those pieces back to the park with notes explaining that their lives had gone downhill since their thievery and that they were returning the pieces in hopes that their lives would return to normal.

Dogs are allowed on all of the trails in this park, however please be sure to get your fur baby those baby booties before taking off hiking with your pup. (Check out the ones that we use on our RV Essentials page) There are some crazy thorny spots along the path.

While Jonathan drove the truck to pick us up, Little Bear and I hiked the 1/2 mile Painted Desert Rim trail between Tawa Point and The Historic Painted Desert Inn. This is an easy walk with beautiful views of the desert. As you drive the rest of the northern section of the park, there are plenty of spots to take a short walk and enjoy some more views.

As you enter the southern section of the park, the terrain changes from the red and pinks to blue and grays. My favorite part of the park was the 1 mile Blue Mesa Trail. This trail allows you to go to the floor of the canyons and really get up close with the blue, purple and gray badlands. This also gave us our first up close look at some of the petrified trees.

As you make you way down to the most southern part of the Petrified Forest, the geology changes again back to desert land. We enjoyed hiking all of the trails to see the Crystal Forest, Giant Logs and Long Logs. It is truly amazing to see all of the trees that have been turned to stone through the petrification process. God's beauty is on full display in this wonderfully beautiful National Park.