logo
Updated

AuthorUp for Grabs

Want to improve the page's content? Try to propose a change.

A landscape where deep time lies fully on display, Petrified Forest National Park blends colorful badlands, vast grasslands, and one of the world’s largest and most vivid collections of petrified wood. Spanning more than 200 million years of geologic history, the park protects ancient fossils, ancestral Puebloan sites, habitat for desert animals, and a sweeping stretch of historic Route 66.

Sunset lights up the Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark west side.

NPS Photo

Where it is

National Park, AZ.

Sunlight highlights the colorful petrified wood of Agate House

NPS Photo

What people do there

  • Arts and Culture
  • Cultural Demonstrations
  • Auto and ATV
  • Scenic Driving
  • Astronomy
  • Stargazing
  • Biking
  • Road Biking
  • Camping
  • Backcountry Camping
  • Horse Camping (see also Horse/Stock Use)
  • Compass and GPS

Masonry wall foundations are all that are left of a hundred room pueblo

NPS Photo/Andrew V. Kearns

Getting there

Petrified Forest stretches north/south between I-40 and Hwy 180. There are two entrances into the park.*** WESTBOUND I-40Travelers should take Exit 311, drive 28 miles through the park to Hwy 180 at the south end. Travel 19 miles to return to I-40 via Holbrook.*** EASTBOUND I-40Travelers should take Exit 285 into Holbrook then travel 19 miles on Hwy 180 to the park's south entrance. Drive 28 miles north through the park to return to I-40.

Two visitors walk the Blue Mesa Trail between blue, purple, and grey badlands.

NPS Photo

Weather

Petrified Forest National Park is a semi-arid grassland. Temperatures range from above 100° F (38° C) to well below freezing. About 10 inches (25.4 cm) of moisture comes during infrequent snow in the winter and often dramatic summer thunder-storms. Animals and plants are adapted to extremes in temperature and moisture. You should be ready too. Check out the forecast before you arrive and plan accordingly.

many petrified logs lay on the ground and on eroded pedestals of clay

NPS Photo/Andrew V. Kearns

More pictures

A beam of light touches a petroglyph at Puerco Pueblo on the summer solstice

NPS Photo

NPS Photo/Stuart Holmes

Researchers dig for fossils in the badlands

NPS Photo

yellow and other colors in a piece of brightly colored petrified wood

NPS Photo

Dark blue sky filled with stars over banded badland.

NPS/Jacob Holgerson

Where this page came from

This page was imported from U.S. National Park Service. Material produced by the National Park Service is in the public domain.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.

LanguagesEnglish

Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov

1

0

0

0

Spinner Logo

Comments

Spinner Logo
Version: 1Maintainers: 1Collections: 0CC0 1.0 — public domain
Planetary Nebula
Version: 1Maintainers: 1Collections: 0CC0 1.0 — public domain
Doradus Nebula
Version: 1Maintainers: 1Collections: 0CC0 1.0 — public domain
The Tarantula Nebula
Version: 1Maintainers: 1Collections: 0CC0 1.0 — public domain
Hubble reveals heart of Lagoon Nebula
Version: 1Maintainers: 1Collections: 0CC0 1.0 — public domain
Hubble Images Searchlight Beams from a Preplanetary Nebula
Version: 1Maintainers: 1Collections: 0CC0 1.0 — public domain
Hubble View of a Nitrogen-Rich Nebula