Top 10 things to do in Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park, in northeastern Arizona, protects one of the largest and most colourful concentrations of petrified wood in the world: the trunks of great conifers that fell into rivers some 218 million years ago, were buried in mud and volcanic ash, and slowly turned to quartz streaked red, orange, yellow and purple. Around them lie badlands of banded clay, the pastel hills of the Painted Desert, the homes and rock art of the people who lived here over thousands of years, and a stretch of old Route 66. These are the ten outings we would put first. The order starts with what the park is known for, then goes by what an outing gives back for the time and effort it takes. Distances are approximate; times are our estimates and do not include stops.

Taking even a small piece of petrified wood from the park is a federal crime; buy pieces collected legally from the shops outside instead. The park sits at about 5,400 feet (1,650 m), with strong sun, little shade and frequent wind: carry water and a hat on every trail. Summer afternoons bring thunderstorms with lightning over the open desert, and the clay trails are slick when wet. Watch for rattlesnakes in the warm months.

1. Drive the park road from the Painted Desert to the Rainbow Forest

A single road runs through the park from Interstate 40 in the north to US 180 in the south, linking every major sight. It starts along the rim of the Painted Desert, crosses the line of telephone poles where Route 66 once ran, with a 1932 Studebaker parked beside it, then drops past the badlands of Blue Mesa, the petroglyphs of Newspaper Rock and the ruins of Puerco Pueblo, and ends among the great logs of the Rainbow Forest. The park is open by day only, so plan to drive it end to end, with short walks along the way.

• Distance: 28 miles (45 km)
• Allow: half a day to a full day, with stops
• Start: Painted Desert Visitor Center, at Exit 311 on Interstate 40, or the Rainbow Forest Museum, off US 180
• When: all year, during the park’s daytime hours
• Suits: everyone

2. Walk down into Blue Mesa

Off a short side loop from the main road, this trail drops steeply from the mesa top into a world of rounded badland hills banded blue, purple, grey and white, made of clay laid down by ancient rivers, with logs of petrified wood scattered on the slopes and perched on pedestals of clay. It is the most otherworldly walk in the park, and the light is best early or late in the day.

• Distance: about 1 mile (1.6 km) loop
• Climb: a steep, paved descent and climb back of about 100 feet (30 m)
• Allow: 45 minutes
• Start: Blue Mesa trailhead, on the Blue Mesa loop road
• When: all year
• Suits: most walkers

3. Walk the Painted Desert rim and visit the Painted Desert Inn

At the north end of the park, the land drops away into the Painted Desert, a wide sweep of eroded hills in red, orange, pink and purple that changes colour with the light and the hour. A short trail follows the rim between Tawa Point and Kachina Point, where the Painted Desert Inn stands, a Pueblo Revival building from the 1930s remodeled by the architect Mary Colter and run as a Harvey House inn for travellers on Route 66. Inside are murals painted by the Hopi artist Fred Kabotie.

• Distance: about 1 mile (1.6 km) round trip on the rim trail
• Allow: 1 hour with the inn
• Start: Tawa Point or Kachina Point, on the park road north of I-40
• When: all year; sunrise and sunset for the colours
• Suits: everyone

4. See the Giant Logs at the Rainbow Forest Museum

Behind the Rainbow Forest Museum at the south end of the park, a short loop climbs among some of the largest and most colourful logs in the park, polished by the weather to show the reds and yellows of the quartz inside. The biggest, called Old Faithful, is nearly 10 feet (3 m) across at the base. The museum itself has displays of the plants and animals of the Triassic, including the skeletons of early dinosaurs.

• Distance: about 0.4 miles (650 m) loop
• Allow: 1 hour with the museum
• Start: Rainbow Forest Museum, at the south end of the park road
• When: all year
• Suits: everyone

5. Walk among the logs of the Crystal Forest

A paved loop leads through a field of broken petrified logs, many of them glittering with quartz and amethyst crystals in their hollows and cracks. Collectors once blasted the logs open to get at the crystals, which helped persuade the government to protect the area. It is one of the easiest walks in the park and among the most colourful.

• Distance: about 0.75 miles (1.2 km) loop
• Allow: 30 minutes
• Start: Crystal Forest trailhead, on the park road
• When: all year
• Suits: everyone; the trail is paved

6. Look down on Newspaper Rock

On a jumble of dark sandstone boulders below an overlook, Ancestral Puebloan people carved more than 650 petroglyphs over many centuries, some of them more than 2,000 years old: spirals, animals, human figures and handprints, so densely packed that the rocks look covered in writing. Spotting scopes at the overlook bring them close.

• Allow: 15 minutes
• Start: Newspaper Rock overlook, on the park road
• When: all year
• Suits: everyone

7. Walk through Puerco Pueblo

On a low rise above the Puerco River, a short paved trail leads through the ruins of a village of more than 100 rooms built around a central plaza, home to perhaps 200 people at its height around 1300. On the boulders nearby are many petroglyphs, including one that a beam of sunlight strikes at the summer solstice, which may have been used to mark the seasons.

• Distance: about 0.3 miles (500 m) loop
• Allow: 30 minutes
• Start: Puerco Pueblo, on the park road
• When: all year
• Suits: everyone; the trail is paved

8. Walk to the Long Logs and Agate House

From the Rainbow Forest Museum, two trails can be walked as one loop. The Long Logs trail leads to one of the largest concentrations of petrified wood in the park, where long trunks lie tangled where a logjam formed in an ancient river. The Agate House trail climbs a small knoll to a pueblo of eight rooms built almost entirely of blocks of petrified wood, partly reconstructed, with a view over the Rainbow Forest.

• Distance: about 2.6 miles (4.2 km) round trip for both
• Allow: 1.5 to 2 hours
• Start: Rainbow Forest Museum
• When: all year; mornings in summer
• Suits: most walkers

9. See Agate Bridge

A petrified log about 100 feet (30 m) long spans a 40-foot (12 m) wash, exposed as the softer rock below it eroded away. Early visitors walked across it, and in 1917, to keep it from breaking, it was propped up with a concrete beam that is still there today, a reminder of how attitudes to protecting natural wonders have changed.

• Allow: 15 minutes
• Start: Agate Bridge, on the park road
• When: all year
• Suits: everyone

10. Hike into the Painted Desert wilderness

North of the Painted Desert Inn, a trail drops from Kachina Point into the Painted Desert itself, a designated wilderness with no trails beyond the first stretch. Here you can wander among the coloured hills and washes, find petrified logs that few people see, such as the one called Onyx Bridge, and camp under some of the darkest skies in Arizona with a free permit. It is the best way to have the park to yourself.

• Allow: half a day, or an overnight with a permit
• Start: Kachina Point, behind the Painted Desert Inn
• When: October to May
• Suits: experienced hikers who can navigate off-trail

Before you go

This list covers what stays the same from year to year. Closures, park hours and road work change, and the National Park Service posts them on its own site. The link is on our Petrified Forest National Park guide, with the map and how to get there.