31 March 2018
I admit it. I was prepared to be underwhelmed with the Petrified Forest National Park. I mean, it’s just a bunch of petrified wood, right? I’m sure you have heard the rumors of how depleted the park has become due to souvenir hunters. That’s false. The park has resourced old images from the 20’s and 30’s and find the locations of those images and the petrified formations are still there.
This was a pretty awesome stop on my itinerary. I totally underestimated this park. Theodore Roosevelt, in 1906, designated the park as a national monument and it became a national park in 1962.
There are two entrances to the park. The northern entrance is just off I-40 (and old Route 66) and is referred to as the Painted Desert entrance. The southern entrance is southeast of Holbrook and is designated the Rainbow Forest entrance. From entrance to entrance is 26 miles of paved road with numerous pullouts and sites. The speed limit is 45 mph for most of the trip, 35 mph around congested areas and 15 mph around the visitor centers. I drove the length twice today. You really don’t pay attention to the mileage nor the time, the scenery is so spectacular.
I was the first car to enter from the south entrance today at 8 am. The gates automatically open at that time. For the first hour of the journey, I pretty much had the entire park to myself. Only later in the morning did I begin to encounter cars and people at the sites.
My first stop skipped the visitor center and two sites: Long Logs and Agate House. More on those later. Instead, I pulled in at Crystal Forest which has a 0.75 mile loop through a badland-like landscape. It was a brisk 45F so I wore my jacket and by the time I got back to the car, I had removed it and it was 61F.
Opposite the Crystal Forest stop is a site called the Battleship. The left portion of the formation seems to resemble the old bows of WWI battleships. It’s an impressive formation regardless.
The next stop was Jasper Forest which large numbers of logs primarily composed of the mineral jasper (chalcedony). There’s a great panoramic view from the overlook.
Next was Agate Bridge, a 100 foot long petrified log. In the 30’s they had to support it with concrete but the park service feels it will soon collapse due to water erosion. They have no plans to shore the bridge up any longer.
The highlight of the park was my next stop – Blue Mesa. You take a 3 1/2 mile loop road through badlands that put the Badlands of South Dakota to shame. These are some of the most beautiful formations within the park. If you feel feisty, you can take a steep trail down for a 1 mile loop at the bottom of the badlands. When I went to the Badlands of South Dakota, there were not hikes down to the bottom. To really appreciate these, you need to get down to the bottom and look up at the formations. The hike, once down to the bottom was easy. However, there’s always that up segment that was the steep descent at the start. The entire trail is paved so walking is easy.
After leaving Blue Mesa, the next formation to appear is named The Tepees. You can see why from the photo.
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After The Tepees, I pulled into Newspaper Rock. There are a series of rocks at the bottom of an overlook with over 650 petroglyphs, some dating to over 2000 years ago. There are a couple of telescopes so you can get a good view of the petroglyphs and if you have a telephoto lens, you can get some good closeups.
Next up was Puerco Pueblo. This site has only been 1/3 excavated and is thought to have 100 rooms for over 200 people around AD 1250-1380. I don’t think there are any plans for further excavation. One interesting feature was a summer solstice device. It used a crack in a rock to project a beam of light on a petroglyph.
The only stop on the entire trip I did not make was the Route 66 stop. They had a rusted out 1932 Studebaker at the site. I’ve driven long segments of Route 66 in Arizona and California, so I didn’t think it necessary to pay homage here.
All the next sites, in succession, were overlooks of the Painted Desert. I’ve seen a portion of the painted desert in the 70’s but this is the most significant expanse I’ve seen. The stops were Lacey Point, Whipple Point, Nizhoni Point, Pintado Point, Chinde Point, Kachina Point, Painted Desert Inn, Tawa Point and Tiponi Point.
The Painted Desert Inn was actually an inn at one time during the heyday of Route 66. It’s been beautifully restored and you ache to be able to stay their for several nights and watch the sunset from Kachina Point.
I stopped at the Painted Desert Visitor Center and had lunch (hamburger and chili) and then decided to redo the entire route!
My last stop of the day was at Rainbow Forest Visitor Center. After visiting the center, walking the Giant Logs loop, I decided to get a little more walking in with the Long Logs Trail and Agate House Trail. If you do the complete trail, it is 2.6 miles. It’s well worth it. Some of the longest petrified logs in the park are found here, some 180 feet long.
The Agate House is interesting but a reconstruction. It was not done exactly the way the pueblo people would have done it but at least you see the basics of the structure. Think of a stone house made entirely of agate. There are a total of severn rooms but only one is completely restored.
All in all, I did about 5.1 miles of hiking today. It was easy hiking and the scenery could not be beat!
Tomorrow, I head to Death Valley. I have reservations at the Pamamint Resort for 3 nights on the west side of the park, on US 190. Unfortunately, my gps does not recognize the address, so if and when I get there is anybody’s guess. I am assuming 7 plus hours on the road tomorrow.
