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Lat 35.0656° N
Long 109.7817° W
Elevation5,340 – 6,235 ft

Arizona · Stamp 27 / 63

Petrified Forest

National Park · Established 1962

Trees turned entirely to rainbow-colored stone, scattered across a badlands that used to be a tropical floodplain.

Area221,415 acres
TrailheadHolbrook, Arizona
Visitors650k / yr
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Live · Park open, strict closing times enforced No overnight lodging or fuel inside the park 1 active alert 76°F · little shade anywhere Live layer, from the National Park Service
Best windowSpring & fall for mild temperatures Getting there25 min from Holbrook · 2 hr from Flagstaff Fee$25 / vehicle · 7 days
★★★★★ 4.7 from 2 travelers 1 visitor stories 650k annual visitors Grounded in live NPS data
Petrified Forest · Mile 01 · The Story

Trees turned entirely
to stone.

Around 200 million years ago, this was a tropical floodplain crossed by rivers that periodically buried fallen trees in sediment fast enough to keep oxygen out. Over millions of years, groundwater carrying dissolved silica seeped into the wood cell by cell, replacing the organic material with quartz before it could fully decay. The result is petrified wood so complete that the internal grain, rings, and even insect damage are sometimes still visible, now colored in reds, purples, and yellows by trace minerals.

The park's northern half protects the Painted Desert, a badlands stretching in an arc from the eastern edge of the Grand Canyon, its layered clay hills changing color through the day as the light shifts. Route 66 and the old Route 66 alignment once cut straight through the park, and a rusted 1932 Studebaker still marks the spot as a tribute to that history.

Come for logs that look like they should still be wood and aren't. Stay for the Painted Desert at golden hour. Read the story, trust the live data above for what is open today, and when you leave, collect the stamp.

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“
Prehistoric logs filled cell by cell with rainbow quartz make up the earth's largest concentration of petrified wood.
Adapted from National Park Service interpretive materials on Petrified Forest
The Painted Desert
"The mountains are calling and I must go."
John Muir
Petrified Forest · Mile 02 · The Essentials

Best Things to Do in Petrified Forest

Six ways to spend your time, from a drive across the Painted Desert to a close look at 200-million-year-old wood.

Drive

The full park road

A 28-mile road connecting the Painted Desert in the north to the densest petrified wood fields in the south, with pullouts throughout.

The signature drive
See

Crystal Forest

A short loop through one of the park's densest concentrations of large, colorful petrified logs.

Everyone · 45 min
See

Blue Mesa

A short but steep loop into badlands striped in blue-gray bentonite clay, scattered with petrified wood fragments.

Everyone · 1 hr
Explore

Newspaper Rock

Hundreds of Ancestral Puebloan petroglyphs pecked into a single boulder, viewable from an overlook with telescopes.

Everyone · 15 min
Do

Hike to Agate House

A partially reconstructed pueblo built almost entirely from petrified wood blocks by Ancestral Puebloans between 1050 and 1300.

Half day · moderate walk
See

The Painted Desert Inn

A restored 1930s adobe building, now a museum, with some of the best sunset views over the badlands in the park.

Everyone · golden hour
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Plan Your Petrified Forest Trip

Answer a few questions right here — we'll map your day, stop by stop, with a route, timings, weather, and a packing checklist grounded in real park data. No account, no leaving this page.

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Field-guide posters and the passport book, from our shop.
When the Crowds ComeMonthly visitors · tap a year
Illustrative shape · wires to official NPS visitation stats · summer peaks shown in gold
Petrified Wood, Cell by Cell
"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."
Edward Abbey
Petrified Forest · Mile 03 · Trails & Viewpoints

Best Hikes in Petrified Forest, by Difficulty

Every trail rated honestly, with distance, climb, and a reminder that the park's closing times are strictly enforced.

Crystal Forest Trail

Easy
0.75 miflat~45 min

A paved loop through a dense field of large, colorful petrified logs, one of the best short walks in the park. No permit.

Blue Mesa Trail

Easy–Mod
1 mi+150 ft~1 hr

A paved loop descending into striped badlands, with a steady climb back up. Not wheelchair accessible. No permit.

Painted Desert Rim Trail

Easy
1 miflat~40 min

A flat rim walk along the edge of the Painted Desert with sweeping badlands views. No permit.

Agate House Trail

Easy–Mod
2 mi+80 ft~1.5 hr

A round-trip walk to a partially reconstructed pueblo built from petrified wood blocks, with little shade along the way. No permit.

Long Logs Trail

Easy
1.6 miflat~1 hr

A loop past some of the longest intact petrified logs in the park, starting near the Rainbow Forest Museum. No permit.

Permit · overnight

Off-Trail Wilderness Hiking

Strenuous
VariableminimalHalf to full day

Much of the park has no marked trails; experienced hikers can explore designated wilderness areas with a free permit required only for overnight camping.

No permit for day hikes or marked trails · free backcountry permits for overnight wilderness camping · strict park closing times enforced, plan your exit

Petrified Forest National Park at a Glance
1  Painted Desert Visitor Center
2  Crystal Forest Trail
3  Blue Mesa
4  Newspaper Rock
5  Agate House
6  Rainbow Forest Museum
Stops shown in visit order. Build a plan above and this map updates to your exact stops.
Petrified Forest · Mile 04 · Life on the Badlands

Wildlife in Petrified Forest: Animals You Might See

Tap any animal to learn its story. Soon, the app will let you log what you spot and keep a life list for every park.

The fastest land animal in North America, sometimes visible grazing the open grasslands of the park's northern section.

Common throughout the park, intelligent enough to investigate unattended food and gear at overlooks and picnic areas.

A striking turquoise-and-yellow lizard often seen doing push-ups on sun-warmed rocks near the petrified wood fields.

Born each spring in the park's grasslands, able to outrun most predators within days of birth.

One of several beetle species adapted to the park's dry badlands, active mostly in the cooler hours of the day.

The park's rock layers preserve ancient clams, snails, and other invertebrates alongside the petrified wood, evidence of the wet floodplain that once existed here.

Common throughout the park's grasslands and badlands, most often heard rather than seen at dusk.

Plant Life in Petrified Forest: What Grows Here

Ancient conifer trees, some over 200 feet tall in life, fossilized cell by cell into solid quartz over millions of years.

One of the few grasses able to establish in the park's clay-heavy badlands soil, historically used as a food grain.

Found in patches across the park's open grasslands, blooming yellow in late spring.

A common yellow wildflower along the park road, blooming for much of the growing season given adequate rain.

Found in scattered stands near the park's southern edge, one of the few trees hardy enough for this arid badlands environment.

A drought-adapted wildflower that blooms in bursts of orange after seasonal rains across the park's grasslands.

Fun Facts About Petrified Forest

Fact 01

The park's petrified wood formed roughly 200 million years ago, when silica-rich groundwater replaced buried tree cells with quartz.

Fact 02

Removing petrified wood from the park is a federal crime; the park store sells only wood legally collected from surrounding private land.

Fact 03

The Painted Desert badlands run in an arc stretching from near the Grand Canyon through the northern section of the park.

Fact 04

A rusted 1932 Studebaker marks the spot where the old Route 66 once passed directly through what is now the park.

Petrified Forest · Provisions
Gear for this parkvia AvantLink
Wide-brim sun hatREI
3L hydration packOsprey
Polarized sunglassesBackcountry
Stay nearbyvia Hipcamp
Sites near Holbrook
Twenty-five minutes from the park entrance, Route 66 nostalgia included, from $22 a night.
Free Petrified Forest checklistdigital · $0
The printable trail and packing checklist in the field-guide style. Take it, join the trail list.
Petrified Forest · Mile 05 · From the Field Journal

Go Deeper on Petrified Forest

Stories, guides, and hard-won tips from the trail. The full Petrified Forest deep dive lives on the journal.

Geology

How a Tree Actually Turns to Stone, Explained Simply

Read the guide →
Photo Guide

The Painted Desert at Golden Hour: Where to Stand

Read the guide →
Itinerary

1 Perfect Day in Petrified Forest: North to South

Read the guide →
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Offline maps and your passport. Join the app waitlist.
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Free Petrified Forest checklist
The printable trail and packing list, in the field-guide style.
★Petrified ForestPark Hub · Collected
Your passport

One stamp,
one story.

Log the visit, keep your story, and watch the map of all sixty-three fill in behind you. Every stamp has a keepsake worth holding.

Petrified Forest · Mile 06 · Where to Next

Keep the Journey Going

Next park

Grand Canyon

West along the Painted Desert's arc: from petrified trees to the canyon that helped carve the desert's edge.

Open Stamp 07 → The collection

All 63 Parks

See the full map and track every stamp you have earned.

View the map → Plan

Build a Trip

Turn Petrified Forest into a road trip with a custom, day-by-day itinerary.

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The Petrified Forest Deep Dive

The long-form guide: every trail, season, and secret, on the journal.

Read it →
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Thirty-six parks remain
"The parks do not belong to one state or to one section... they belong as much to the man of Massachusetts, of Michigan, of Florida, as they do to the people of California, of Wyoming, and of Arizona."
Stephen Mather · first director of the National Park Service
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