PETRIFIED FOREST
As one of our final stops on our original national parks adventure, this one was a surprise. Not only because of the beautiful landscapes and scenery within the park, but because it wasn’t a stop we had originally planned. Thank goodness for happy accidents!
Driving into the park from Utah allowed us to first pass through the Painted Desert National Monument. This landscape truly lives up to it’s name. After exploring a bit and taking in the vistas from the Painted Desert Inn, we made our way down to Petrified Forest National Park. After crossing a portion of Historic Route 66, we were among the sites and a landscape as ancient as time itself.
After stopping to see Puerco Pueblo and spy the images on Newspaper Rock, we hiked through the drip castle landscape of Blue Mesa. Here we saw some of our first large scale pieces of petrified wood. After exploring here, we hiked the Long Logs and Agate House Trails prior to making our way out of the park to our next destination. While this park is small, it is incredibly beautiful, easy to see in one day, and located in a close enough proximity to both Moab and the Grand Canyon. Definitely consider it on your trip to the southwest!
Petrified Forest National Park is on the traditional and stolen land of the Dine Bikeyah, Pueblo, Zuni, and Hopitutskwa people.
Listen while you look! This buttons will link you to the podcast episode for this park and gallery.
