CU #6 – Petrified Forest National Park

CU #6 – Petrified Forest National Park

April 17, 2022

Staying as long as I did in Winslow, Arizona, gave my wrist more time to heal and strengthen and me time to take in more sights in the area. About an hour’s drive east of Winslow, is Petrified Forest National Park. I definitely wanted to spend some time there

I drove by the cities of Holbrook and Joseph City. It wasn’t until I wrote my blog about Winslow State Park and the Mormon settlement that I learned that Joseph City is the only Mormon settlement city of the four started on the Little Colorado River that survived and prospered. 🤔 Therefore it is the oldest Mormon settlement in Arizona. That’s quite a history.

love these gigantic signs and the willingness of everyone to take turns and take pictures for each other ,😊

Layout of the Park

The scenic road through the Petrified Forest National Park is 28 miles long and can be entered through a visitor center on the North side as well as one on the South side.

if you are traveling East it makes more sense to take 180 out of Holbrook to the South entrance so that after you have traveled through the park you end up on Interstate 40 to continue East. Just the opposite is recommended if you are heading west.

It really is important to stop at the Visitor Center before entering into the park. The information and handouts that they have available are extremely helpful. Like this great map I used. All of the photos and information in this blog take place at the very top of the map before Interstate 40 crosses the park.

a large trip planner was available that not only had the map of the sights worth seeing but had photos taken from each sight (that are not included in this picture,) as well. Just an excellent guide !

I spent two days at Petrified Forest. It was about a 45-minute drive for me to get there and I took quite a bit of time at the Visitor Center the first day, so I did not get very far into the park. There are a lot of pull-outs and scenic sights throughout and they really are worth the stop. I was fortunate in that I was always able to get a parking spot. Because of the light traffic, I could slow down or even stop in the middle of the road to take photos! 😅 There were multiple parking areas and lookouts for each scenic area. Plenty of room for everyone. The Petrified Forest closes at 6:30 p.m. . You had to be on your way out of the park by that time. Park rangers would patrol the road and discourage people from making any more stops. The Visitor Center’s closed at 4:30 p.m.

Catchy reminders were placed throughout the Park.

I entered off of Interstate 40 at the Painted Desert Visitor Center. At the time the Visitor Center was undergoing remodeling/construction. So you had to take a circuitous path to the back, past the gift shop, to get to it’s current location.

Waiting in line to get through gate. Board with all the information you need. Courtyard and signs to Visitor’s Center.

I think a number of people who were in a hurry, stopped at the first building thinking it was the visitor center but it was really a very nice gift shop. 😬 If they didn’t go further they never did get the information that was really helpful. Farther back there is also an on-site archaeologist. You could watch through the window as she was working under a microscope to remove the clay particles from the Azendohsaurus. It’s a relatively new species that has been discovered in Madagascar previously. I think this is the only place in North America that it has recently been discovered to have lived. So it’s a pretty big deal!

this is part of The Visitor Center parking lot, not an RV park! I think because the Park is along the interstate and can be driven through, a lot more people that are rving stop to see it with their rigs while on their way to another place. Therefore the parking areas at each sight are a little larger to accommodate RVs
at the Center there is also this beautiful petrified log. I am just fascinated by the many colors that the Petrified Wood takes on. It’s just gorgeous!

Painted Desert

The first areas I stopped at were overlooks of the beautiful Painted Desert. I always thought the Painted Desert was a separate Park by itself, but it seems to be part of the Petrified National Park.

First view of the Painted Desert

As you know, photos cannot do scenery like this justice. But this is pretty close. I enjoyed the view and the many colors.

The path…🤔

I noticed there was a path out along the crest of some hills and into the desert. That was interesting. I enjoy looking AT beautiful scenery, but I would much rather be out IN it. I walked further along to the very end of the parking lot trying to follow the path back to it’s beginning. I noticed the “social path” through the grass out towards the hills. 🤔 I also noticed a young man out on it. Should I go out there, too? Was it a path they really didn’t want you walking on? Oh hell, what are they going to do to me and who is going to do it? I’m going to go out there!! 😃 ( After I was coming back on the path, I met people coming out on it, specifically a woman and her teenage daughters. They told me when they saw me out there they definitely wanted to go, too!! 😬 ” We’re only going to be here once”… They laughed.) Look what I started! 🙄

Beginning of the path area, path along crest of hills to the left of me.

Since I was walking on a path that is not heavily traveled, I kept my eyes out for lounging snakes. Fortunately for some, but unfortunately for me, I didn’t see any. 😕 It was a really nice walk, and except for the one gentleman leaving the path, I had it to myself. It’s so nice to walk and look around at such beauty at my own pace and enjoy the quiet.

The path was wide enough and pretty smooth. It was a good walk . Top left is looking back at the parking lot. Middle right is as well and shows the beginning of the path. Bottom right are the women I met. 😊

The following photos were taken from the end of the path, a little deeper into the desert.

the rounded red hill appearing at the bottom of a couple of the photos is actually the end of the path. It’s hard to realize the size of everything in the photos and how far down the valley actually is.
driving to the next overlook. Much of the area is actually covered with grasslands
View from the road on the way to the next overlook. You drive along the edge at times and it’s just beautiful but a big drop off 😬
The View changes constantly.
A top layer of basalt which protects the soft red rocks
Notice the black to the right along the cliff…basalt

Another Path…😃

Drive, get out and enjoy the view, take pictures, get back in the car and drive to the next overlook. That sounds so typically touristy…. even though there is much to see and that’s all you can do! Until …you find another social path!! 😉

this one was much trickier as it started out very steep and with loose stones. Having fallen once already and broken my wrist, I was extra careful on this one!!
This is where I stopped. You could climb down towards the valley, but that was challenging! The valley is a long way down.

This path was not long and it was much more challenging, but it had beautiful views of parts of the valley that you could not see from the rim.

You can see the path and the beautifully painted cliffs!
looking back toward the rim, I saw this valley hidden to the side. It was a neat discovery.
a view of how steep the path down was. It also had some scree on it which made it tricky. “Scree” is a word for loose stones or gravel that you can slide on
One more scenic photo!

All of these beautiful areas of the Painted Desert are within the first two miles of the entrance! It’s just one point after another. What I did not stop at was the Painted Desert Inn which is a historical landmark. I just decided I wanted to see the scenery instead and would take that in later if I had time. As it turned out, I never did

I got back to the truck and started heading further into the Petrified Forest. I definitely was driving through grasslands at this point.

such a difference from one side of the road to the other!

Route 66

Initially, Route 66 once cut right through the park and is kind of a big deal.

this roadside Attraction in the park was developed in 2006 and the Studebaker was donated by an area family.
definitely a unique setup
courtesy of the internet to provide the rest of the story
the Route 66 insignia is quite large and imprinted into the cement at the site. With the bright Sun it was at first difficult to even spot…
how it looks today. Definitely not much of a danger of rust out here!! 😀
A really interesting history of how it used to be in the 50s and 60s..all the little roadside attractions
What can I say?? 🤔. I was there,!! 😎 Notice the telephone poles referred to in the background..
a photo capturing Now and Then.
back onto the Park road and heading down to Puerco Pueblo. There really were other people around! I just timed my pictures when there were not 😅

I will now be traveling through the rest of the Painted Desert down to the Petrified Forest. I will pick this up in the next blog and will merge my 2 days worth of pictures together.

I hope you enjoyed my attempt to take you along on my exploration of the Painted Desert! 😊

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