NH Nomads at Petrified Forest National Park

We got to breakfast at our hotel as soon as it was open and hit the road as soon as we could in order to make the most of the daylight that we have available. It took just over two hours for us drive from Flagstaff to the Painted Desert Visitor Center off of I-40.

We watched the film at the Visitor Center, got our National Park Passport Stamp, looked around the gift shop, chatted with the ranger, and searched for a geocache in the interpretive area just outside of the visitor center.

Old Willys truck at the Painted Desert Visitor Center filling station

While the petrified trees were very impressive, Petrified Forest National Park has a lot more to offer than just that! We started at the north entrance and traveled south through the park, so we ended with the petrified forest portion of the park after driving through the Painted Desert, portions of the original Route 66, and petroglyphs.

We parked at Tiponi Point and took a short hike along the old Route 66 road bed to a geocache.

This benchmark placed in 1937 sufficiently demonstrates how quickly this topography changes.

After hiking along a service road and some of the original Route 66 roadbed to find a geocache, we stopped and warmed up in the restored Desert Inn.

Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark

An old Studebaker on display alongside the original Route 66 roadbed (visible on the left)

Standing on the original roadbed of Route 66, looking west.

Newspaper Rock features many types of petroglyphs. These carvings stand out so dramatically because the lighter color of the rock shows through the darker veneer that has been chipped away. The photo above was taken with our 300 mm zoom lens. Make sure to bring binoculars or a camera with a telephoto lens to truly appreciate these carvings.

Very distinct layering in the Painted Desert scenery

As was the case with all of the parks we visited on this trip, we had limited daylight and wanted to see as much of the park as we could. We did not do as much hiking as we would have liked to, but definitely saw potential to spend days exploring on some future visit (maybe when we live in our trailer and can park it on some nearby BLM land or the Chinde Point Campground that is planned to open sometime in 2021).

Though we did not hike too many trails, we drove as much as we could. The Blue Mesa loop brought us past some rock formations that reminded us of the Badlands, but with a much different coloration!

Many of the major “attractions” are practically roadside. The Agate Bridge was only a hundred yards or so from the parking area. This fossilized tree was shored up with a concrete beam in 1917, a measure that the National Park Service would not take today.

Petrified logs on the Crystal Forest hiking loop.

Petrified tree along the Crystal Forest hiking loop

The Crystal Forest hike was a short paved loop (it seemed a bit longer in the cold wind!) that took us past many beautiful petrified wood specimens. It was hard to believe that what we were looking at was not actually wood, especially with the mineral coloration.