An Otherworldly Day At Petrified Forest National Park

Arizona

May 2021

The Painted Desert, Vistas, Ravens, and Route 66

We entered through the North Entrance off I-40 and began exploring Petrified Forest NP by following Petrified Forest Road. After a quick photo at the entrance, we parked at the Painted Desert Rim Trail and walked the rim to the Painted Desert Inn, a National Historic Landmark, before turning back. This first hike was an amazing introduction to the park, offering wide vistas of the colorful badlands.

Our next stop was at Pintado Viewpoint, a high-point lookout over the Painted Desert. The ravens there were curious and not shy at all. Since we didn’t bring food, they quickly lost interest in us. We also made a quick stop at the Route 66 marker. Petrified Forest is the only National Park that contains a portion of Historic Route 66 within its borders. A rusted 1932 Studebaker is permanently parked there, a lonely remnant of the millions of people who traveled the iconic ‘Mother Road’ between 1926 and 1958.

Ancient Art, Tepee Rocks, and Blue Forest Views

At Petrified Forest’s archaeological site, Puerco Pueblo, we walked to the remains of a home of the ancestral Puebloan people. Around 1300 CE, this was a huge rectangular complex with about 100 rooms encircling a central plaza, housing roughly 200 people. Along the cliffs and boulders surrounding the pueblo, we saw ancient petroglyphs carved into the sandstone. Centuries later, we are learning about their lives and how they communicated; their stories are drawn almost like a modern comic book.

The Tepees got their name because they resemble the tents used by Great Plains tribes. The name actually has nothing to do with how the Puebloan people lived here. At the Historic Blue Forest Viewpoint, we were treated to another magnificent view and began spotting more of those colorful petrified logs.

Out of this World at Blue Mesa, Agate Bridge, and Crystal Forest

Our next hike was the Blue Mesa Trail, the “must-do” of the park. It was a short, one-mile (1.6 km) loop that felt like stepping onto another planet. We literally descended into a not-from-this-earth landscape in the heart of the Blue Forest badlands. This is the only place where the hills have such distinct blue, purple, and gray stripes, with large chunks of colorful petrified wood scattered along the valley floor. Agate Bridge, our next stop, is a massive petrified log that spans a 40-foot-wide gully. Over a century ago, the log was reinforced with concrete to prevent it from collapsing. Today, perspectives have changed, and the NPS now prefers to let nature take its course.

Our journey continued to the Crystal Forest, an area named for the sparkling quartz and amethyst crystals found within the petrified wood. Because this fossilized wood is as hard and brittle as glass, the logs didn’t simply crumble; they snapped over time. These colorful, “broken” pieces now resemble the scattered fragments of a giant stone puzzle.

Giant Logs and the Spectacular Crystal House

We finished our adventure at the southern end of the park, near the visitor center, by walking the Giant Logs Trail and the path to Agate House. While exploring Giant Logs, we saw the park’s most massive petrified trees, including the famous “Old Faithful.” A short hike further led us to Agate House, an eight-room pueblo built nearly a thousand years ago. This unique structure was built almost entirely from the surrounding colorful petrified wood. It is a spectacular, colorful, crystal house.

Petrified Forest wasn’t at all what I expected. It isn’t considered one of the iconic National Parks. However, it delivered that otherworldly experience—a painting class where the giants spilled their paint everywhere—and I am so thankful to have experienced it.