I didn’t know too much about Petrified Forest before going, and thought it was going to be kind of boring and just a bunch of petrified wood, but it turned out to be a really amazing place! Petrified Forest is not a huge park – we drove here after visiting the Grand Canyon (~3 hour drive away) and had about half a day but felt like we had plenty of time to see everything.
The park has two main sections:
- The logs – southern part of the park where there are tons of petrified logs
- The Painted Desert – the northern part with mesas and a colorful desert
One main road goes through the park and we drove from south to north, seeing the logs first and then ending up in the painted desert area for sunset.
Giant Logs, Long Logs, Crystal Forest
Petrified logs are formed when trees fall and minerals and mineral-infused water get absorbed into the wood and crystallizes. They’re really amazing because they look just like regular logs but when you touch them, they’re totally solid pieces of rock.
There’s a series of short hikes (1-2 miles or less) near the southern entrance/visitor’s center that showcase the petrified logs, which are just strewn about everywhere along the trails. We did the Giant Logs, Long Logs, and Crystal Forest trails and it was fun to see and touch the logs up close.
Blue Mesa Trail
The Blue Mesa trail might’ve been my favorite part of Petrified Forest. It’s short, but a really fun walk through badlands of bluish clay.
We didn’t have time, but Petrified Forest also has some “Off the Beaten Path” trails that are unpaved and unmarked and if we had more time, I would’ve loved to have done the Blue Forest Trail which goes through this area but is longer and gets more up close with the mesas.
Painted Desert Rim Trail
We ended our day with a sunset hike along the rim of the Painted Desert, which was already beautiful with all its pink and white layers but was even more spectacular with the sunset glow.
Gallup, New Mexico
We were headed towards Mesa Verde next, so from here we drove about an hour to Gallup and spent the night there (which was the next remotely large-ish town in the area).
We had dinner at Smokey’s BBQ which was actually great barbecue and also very reasonably priced!