Where Wood Became Stone: Petrified Forest National Park and The Painted Desert

We were driving from Grand Junction, CO to Holbrook, AZ and decided to take a detour through Petrified Forest National Park. We knew we didn't have long to visit the park so this was more of a "scouting" trip. The next day we were driving on to Phoenix so we wanted to see if we want to spend more time at the park on a future trip. We had already been disappointed this trip when we visited Devil's Tower in Wyoming (too crowded) and Hubble Trading Post in Arizona (overpriced everything). We are frugal travelers and are very careful with our money, and our time. Since I have an America the Beautiful pass there's no charge to get into National Parks and Monuments. So, just like we did at The Badlands last year, we decided to give Petrified Forest a "look over."

It was very warm the day we arrived with rain showers all around us. In some shots on the video, if you look carefully at the distant horizon, you can see streaks of heavy rain falling to the earth. We were very blessed to have missed the rain to the north.

Petrified Forest National Park is, to me, a much larger version of The Badlands in South Dakota. The landscape was beautiful with all the colors and textures. There are hiking trails, some easy and some very rugged. The visitor center was filled with information about the geology and history of the park. There is some camping at the southern entrance. The north entrance features The Painted Desert while the Petrified Forest is south of where the park road crosses interstate 40. There's a stop along the road where you can find a section of old Route 66 and a 1932 Studebaker slowly decaying in the desert heat. The color and size of the petrified logs are amazing. It's hard to imagine that what you are looking at was once wood. Now that wood has become crystal, filled with all the colors of the rainbow.

When you visit make sure you drink plenty of fluids as you are in a desert. There are no facilities between the two entrances so make sure you have food and water. The nearest gas is Holbrook AZ some 21 miles away.

We will come back to Petrified Forest National Park and spend some time exploring, maybe even in 2022.

Equipment:
iPhone 10
A 15 year old Olympus VG-140 Camera
Akaso EK7000 Camera
Bcway Phone All-in-One Travel Tripod with Remote
Trekking Poles, Insulated Bottles, and Backpack are Ozark Trail
Hiking hat is a Tilley

Music:
Moving On by Wayne Jones
Last Train to Mars by Dan Lebowitz

We travel in a 2019 Toyota RAV4 XLE front-wheel drive with over 103,000 miles. We are still praying for a small Scamp or an Aliner to tow behind it.

Recorded on location July 17, 2021 at Petrified Forest National Park AZ