Petrified Forest National Park

Due to unforeseen circumstances my agenda for the rest of the year was changed and this was the last National Park visit of 2019. I missed out on Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Joshua Tree National Parks and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument that I had planned, but that’s okay… Many more adventures to come in 2020!

Petrified Forest is different from any other National Park I’ve been to. There are no campgrounds, no lodging and only 7 miles of hiking trail in the park. Highway 40 goes right through it. I would say this is a 2 day maximum trip. I was able to drive all the way from south to north of the park and stop at most of the roadside points of interest along the way all half a day.

Click pictures to enlarge

At the visitor center there are exhibits of fossils of prehistoric plants and animals, petrified wood from the forest that existed 225 million years ago in then humid and subtropical climate. There is lots of history of life, even though now this park looks more like a desert, or some remote planet with surface of different colors and shapes. It seems like every few miles the colors would transition from gray & blues to pink & browns.

Some places the two will meet, and create an effect of black and white photo mixed with color. Check out the three pictures below.

And of course high concentrations of petrified wood all over the park, but there are few places in the park with much higher concentration, such as Crystal Forest below.

The day I visited was extremely windy, I couldn’t keep my hat from blowing off. It was also very hot and sunny, and this was my face majority of the day.

Just kidding, it wasn’t too bad. Beat any day at the office 🙂

If you decide to visit be sure to stop at either visitor center to grab a map with all of the details on recommended stops.

The drive from north entrance to the south entrance or vice versa is only 28 miles, so if you’re making it a day trip there is plenty of time to stop and explore. Some of the colors were out of this world, like I said earlier it felt like a different planet.

Overall a good day, and very convenient since its right off I40, but in all honesty I would not go out of my way to visit this park.

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