Ultimate Guide to One Day in Petrified Forest National Park: Best Things to See and Do
Thinking about spending one day in Petrified Forest National Park? Read on for my detailed guide of what to see and do.
For me, Petrified Forest National Park is the literal definition of a hidden gem (in more ways than one!). First off, it truly does feel actually hidden. It’s located off of I-40 in northeastern Arizona, in the middle of what seems to be barren wilderness.
Once you get off the interstate and start driving through the park, you’ll be almost immediately greeted by shockingly colorful, red hills, interesting rock formations, and, of course, actual “gems”.
These “gems” are petrified wood, which are millions of years old wood that has been calcified and turned into brilliant stone.
This area holds one of the largest concentrations of petrified food in the entire world. In fact, one US conservationist said, “There are other petrified forests, but this is THE petrified forest of the world”.
How Petrified Forest National Park is Set Up
Petrified Forest covers 346 square miles, and is roughly a vertical rectangular shape. There is one main road, heading north-south, that cuts through the park, and there are entrances on both the northern and southern edges.
The north entrance to the park is right off of I-40; the park is literally 30 seconds from the interstate exit. The southern entrance of the park is off of Highway 180.
The northern half of the park is mostly painted hills, with beautiful red and white striated badlands formations. Badlands are hills with heavy patterns of erosion, and while there is a Badlands National Park, badland hills can be found throughout the world (such as in Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Cathedral Gorge State Park)
The southern half of the park is where you’ll find almost all of the petrified wood.
You can start from either end (north or south) and will have a good experience either way.
The good news is that one day in Petrified Forest National Park is plenty of time to hit the main sites in the national park, and enjoy the whole range of experiences the park has to offer.
Tip: Make sure you stop at the visitor center and get a Park Trip Planner Map – it will show you all the main stops to make on the Scenic Road that goes through the park and is incredibly helpful for navigating.
You can also get a list of the “Off the Beaten Path” Trails – these are longer, more isolated trails that offer exceptional views and experiences in the park, but aren’t on the main trail map.
Hours and Entrance Fees
Unlike many national parks, Petrified Forest actually has opening hours, and the park is closed and gated outside of those hours. This is to prevent theft of the petrified wood inside the park, which generally occurs after nightfall.
The park hours are from 8am-5pm, but in summer months, the park may stay open a couple hours later due to the late sunset. You can check the park website or inquire with the rangers about the current hours of operation in the park for the dates you’ll be visiting.
When I went, the park closed at 5pm and the gates were closed at that time. However, visitors were allowed to stay in until 7pm, and the gates would open automatically for you when they sensed a car approaching from inside the park.
Note: It is expressly forbidden to remove *anything* from the park – including petrified wood, leaves, grass, other stones, or pebbles. Please follow these rules and leave the park in good condition for the next generations of visitors.
Things to Do in Petrified Forest National Park
This is a breakdown of everything that you will see and do if you follow the main trail guide of recommended stops throughout the park. Additionally, I did one Off the Beaten Path trail, which I would highly recommend, and I’ll mention that too.
This itinerary starts from the north visitor centers and heads south, but you can easily follow the route backward, heading north.
1. Painted Desert Visitor Center
If you’re doing the park north to south, stop here for a map of the park, trail maps for the Off The Beaten Path hikes, and to get any other information from the ranger that you might want.
2. Tiponi Viewpoint
Tiponi is the first viewpoint in the park and is both very beautiful and a little shocking – I was NOT expecting the vibrant color of the painted hills here. All of a sudden, BAM! Beautiful, striated, red hills emerge from the middle of the rather barren desert. Loved it.
3. Tawa Point
Tawa Point takes you on a super short path to the end of the point where you get 180+ degree views over the painted desert. You start to see more striations in the hills here, but the dominant color is still red. This is a very, very beautiful viewpoint.
You can also walk out to Tawa Point from the Painted Desert Visitor Center, following the Tawa Trail along the rim of the canyon.
4. Painted Desert Inn
The Painted Desert Inn is a charming hotel and restaurant originally built with stuccoed petrified wood over 100 years ago. It was renovated and used extensively in the mid-century era and today is a National Historic Landmark.
The outside is designed in typical southwest architecture style, while the inside is adorable and painted in happy bright colors. Admire the old soda bar, the painted decorations, the historic and intricate glass ceiling, and the great views over the hills.
Then head downstairs to order an ice cream cone, admire the exposed petrified wood on the back door, and look through the outside windows to the bedrooms where employees used to live.
5. Hozho Point
Hozho Point is also known as Chinle Point, which is a Navajo word that refers to the ghost left after a person dies. They say it’s a good name for this point because there are thousands of fossils in the area.
The other notable thing about this spot is that you still get beautiful painted desert views in front of you, and they seem to go on forever- row after row of painted hills.
6. Pintado Point
Pintado Point gives you almost exactly the same view as Hozho Point, but just slightly higher and to the left. Thanks to the higher elevation at Pintado, you can see a little bit farther out in the distance to the far mountain peaks. There is also a map display which points out and names the mountain features you are looking at.
Since they’re very similar, if you have to choose between the two, I’d do Pintado over Hozho.
7. Nizhoni Point
Nizhoni gives a slightly different view of the painted desert. There aren’t quite as many colorful hills in view, but you can actually walk a few minutes down a little trail on the ridge of one of the Badland hills right in front of the viewpoint. For that reason alone, Nizhoni is a fun stop to make.
Note that the trail is a little slippery with sand. It’s totally manageable, especially for adults, but just use caution.
8. Whipple Point
Whipple Point is just a minute down the road from Nizhoni Point, but is actually a fairly different view. You get several striped hills in the foreground and then a really big expanse of painted hills in the background – it’s a different vantage point of the same view that you saw at Pintado Point.
9. Lacey Point
Lacey Point is named after conservationist and Congressman John Frederic Lacey, who helped author and push through the Lacey Act of 1900. The Act protected both plants and wildlife in many national park/monument/forest areas.
There is a lot of information about the history of the Petrified Forest area at Lacey Point, but the views are very similar to Whipple Point. You could certainly pick one or the other if you’re short on time.
Pro Tip: This is the end of the series of painted hill overlooks. I liked all the viewpoints and they are quick stops, so it’s easy to hit them all. However, if you are short on time or just don’t want to stop at all of them, I would prioritize Tiponi, Tawa, Pintado, and Lacey, as I thought these were the best.
10. Route 66 Alignment
The Route 66 Alignment has an old 1936 Studebaker car located right where Route 66 used to cut through this part of Arizona. One of the (many) things that make Petrified Forest NP notable is that it’s the only national park that had part of Route 66 in it.
The empty telephone poles behind the Studebaker mark the exact location of the Route. During Route 66’s heyday, this spot used to be a whole roadside attraction with multiple buildings and things to do.
Today, it’s just a cute little spot along the Scenic Drive.
11. Puerco Pueblo
Puerco Pueblo is a 0.3 mile paved loop that takes you through the ruins of a Native American settlement, past some petroglyphs, and through a small display of ancient artifacts. The ruined village belonged to the ancestral Puebloan people between 1250-1380, and was part of a very large, inhabited settlement.
There are also multiple viewpoints that look out over petroglyphs, with explanations of what researchers think the petroglyphs represent. Interestingly, there are over 1000 sites like this (with ruins and petroglyphs) in this national park.
Finally, there’s a very small structure that functions as a mini-museum, discussing the history of the area and displaying artifacts like historic ceramic pieces. Fascinatingly, the Petrified Forest area has some of the most diverse ceramics on the Colorado plateau.
12. Newspaper Rock
Newspaper Rock is a viewpoint overlooking some very large boulders holding over 650 petroglyphs! These petroglyphs are over 2000 years old, and are concentrated in clusters on the sides of the boulders, making for a really impressive sight.
…That is, if you can see them! It’s actually very difficult to see the petroglyphs with the naked eye. There are a few stationary binoculars set up at the overlook, and some people bring their own binoculars. I just used the zoom on my phone camera to admire them.
13. Historic Blue Forest Trail
After Newspaper Rock, the next numbered stop on the road is at Blue Mesa, but before you arrive, there is a named but unnumbered stop called The Teepees. This is the trailhead for Historic Blue Forest Trail, one of the Off the Beaten Path Hikes in Petrified Forest, and it ended up being easily my favorite part of the entire day.
You start out by hiking on a raised trail through the wash, with blue painted hills around you. Then you go up and into the blue hills! You’ll start winding through the badlands hills, and often walking along the tops of the ridges on the hills. The views all around are just magnificent!
If you are going to do it, you definitely need AllTrails and/or to stop at the visitor center and pick up a trail guide, which is several sheets of paper stapled together with pictures of where to go on the hike and how to follow the trail.
Sometimes the trail is not very well-marked or obvious, and it’s extremely helpful to be able to follow a map of some kind.
It’s 3 miles round trip and I would say it was a pretty easy hike, with great views and a lot of fun factor. If you like hiking, in my opinion, this is a must-do in Petrified Forest.
14. Blue Mesa
After the Historic Blue Forest Trail, the Blue Mesa Trail was my next favorite spot in Petified Forest. Blue Mesa is actually a side road that takes you to a small loop with several overlooks. The 5th overlook is also the trailhead for the Blue Mesa Trail, which is a 1 mile paved loop around the striated blue, cream, and (faintly) red badlands.
This is a gorgeous walk and not to be missed.
The final viewpoint in Blue Mesa overlooks the Blue Mesa Trail, and also offers exceptional views of the beautiful hills from above.
15. Agate Bridge
Agate Bridge is a really impressive 100-foot petrified log that spans a gully. It’s a very short walk from the parking lot to the bridge and is a really cool formation.
16. Jasper Forest
Jasper Forest is actually a view looking down over a valley filled with a massive amount of petrified wood. The overlook is actually pretty high, so you can’t see the wood up close or admire the colors, but you just see the wood dotting the ground far in every direction.
You really get a sense of the sheer scale and volume of the amount of petrified wood that is in the national park and surrounding areas.
17. Crystal Forest
Crystal Forest is your first opportunity (if you’re heading north-south) to really get up close and personal with the petrified logs. This 0.75 mile loop winds through an old petrified log forest, and you get to see and inspect all the beautiful and colorful pieces of petrified wood yourself.
What is remarkable about the wood is that it glistens and shines – the wood really turns to stone and even has crystal deposits.
18. Rainbow Forest Museum
Rainbow Forest Museum is the southern Visitor Center, with a small museum area attached. Here you can learn about the history of the park, the dinosaurs and animals that lived here millions of years ago, how petrified rock is formed, and view some particularly spectacular pieces of petrified wood. It’s definitely worth a stop.
19. Giant Logs Trail
Just behind the Rainbow Forest Museum is the Giant Logs Trail, a 0.4 mile unpaved loop through massive logs and large chunks of petrified wood. Again – the beauty, color, and shine of these wood-turned-stones is breathtaking!
20. Long Logs and Agate House
Finally, the last stop in Petrified Forest is the Long Logs and Agate House loop. This is a 2.6 mile trail that winds around and takes you past more large and small chunks of petrified wood. You then continue out to Agate House, a small house constructed entirely of shiny pieces of petrified wood, built by Native Americans.
By this point, I was starting to feel like I’d seen plenty of petrified wood (as cool as it is), but Agate House is quite cool and is worth the walk out.
21. Buying Petrified Wood
While it is expressly forbidden to collect petrified wood from the park, there is still a ton of this wood in the region outside the park. The wood on the privately owned land can be collected and sold, and you can pick up some pieces in the gift shops near the visitor centers.
There are also stores selling petrified wood outside the park, and the biggest and most famous of these is located about 15 minutes outside of the south entrance, in the town of Holbrook.
Jim Gray’s Petrified Wood Company is a large facility full of interesting pieces of petrified rock, as well as tons and tons of other cool rocks, both large and small. Honestly, as a person who is “not that into rocks,” I was absolutely delighted by all the different treasures at Jim Gray’s.
How Long Do You Need in Petrified Forest National Park?
You can easily see and do all of the highlighted spots on the park map with one day in Petrified Forest, but you will need essentially the entire day to accomplish everything. You’ll definitely want to get to the park close to opening time, and plan to be there until closing.
If you have 2 days, you can do several of the Off the Beaten Path trails.
If you have just a half day, this is the route I would follow (note: this is listed north-to-south, but you could easily do it backward south-to-north):
- Tiponi Point
- Tawa Point
- Painted Desert Inn
- Pintado Point
- Newspaper Rock
- Historic Blue Forest
- Blue Mesa (you could choose between Blue Mesa and Historic Blue Forest Trail if needed)
- Long Logs + Agate House
Admittedly, I am overall more into the painted hills than the petrified wood, so my preferred itinerary includes more stops in the badlands and less in the petrified forests. If you are more interested in the rocks, then add in a couple extra stops at the end of the park, and skip Pintado Point and Historic Blue Forest Trail.
Where Else to Visit Before or After Petrified Forest National Park
Petrified Forest is often visited on the way to another destination, and there are so many other cool spots to visit in Arizona!
Many people continue on to visit the Grand Canyon, a solid choice – it’s absolutely spectacular and definitely worth a visit.
You can also stop in Sedona, which is between Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon, an incredible town full of striking red rocks and numerous exciting hiking opportunities (like Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Keyhole Cave, West Fork, and others) and jeep tours.
You could also head north and visit Canyon de Chelly (another AZ hidden gem), Monument Valley, or visit sites around Page like Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, or Lake Powell. There’s always Four Corners Monument, where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico touch.
Another option is to head farther south and hit another underrated national park near Tucson: Saguaro National Park. This park is totally worth visiting and has incredible views of the mighty cacti, as well as ample hiking opportunities.