Description

Arizona, Petrified Forest National Park is part of the Painted Desert.  The Petrified viewing area is on both sides of Interstate 40.

Directions:

West bound on Interstate 40, approximately 50 miles west of the New Mexico boarder, exit at Park Road.  This is the primary petrified viewing road.  It runs north at first and then loops back south under interstate 40 and down to other areas of the park.

Make sure to get the free NPS map when you enter the park.  Date stamps can be found at the information center.

Comment

Arizona, Petrified Forest National Park.  The Northeast park entrance is just a short distance off Interstate-40.  This park entrance has fuel, a restaurant and a gift shop.  The information center is also at this entrance.  A token from the information center is required to enter the park.  From this entrance the park road goes to the south under the I-40 for approximately 20 miles.  On the first section of the park road is the Painted Desert.  The southern park exit has a few rock shops outside the park that sell petrified wood.

There are nine species of fossil trees in the park, all are now extinct.  It's very interesting to see what the trees looked like 200 million years ago when they died.

Sorry, there are NO campgrounds in this National Park.  To see the closest campgrounds to this location, please look at the bottom of this page.  There are two free campgrounds outside the southern exit of the park, they are:

Crystal Forest Gift Shop Campground

Petrified Forest Gift Shop Campground

The closest two campgrounds with full services and hookups in Holbrook are:

Holbrook/Petrified Forest KOA

Ok RV Park

In addition, there are campgrounds in Windslow and at Meteor Crater.  Meteor Crater Campground is just 40 miles further West and it's also on Interstate-40 with easy access.  The actual crater is just a mile or so from the campground.  These campgrounds are:

Homolovi State Park Campground

Meteor Crater RV Park

The petrified trees in the park are truly amazing.  When you exit the park to the south, on Park Road, there are concession stores where you can purchase petrified fossils from the area.  Many of them are cut and polished.

Please leave the park undisturbed—take only pictures and memories.

It's $10 per vehicle to enter the national park.

The Painted Desert Visitors Center is also a good place to stop inside the park.  There is also the Painted Desert Diner next to the  Visitor Center.  The parks concessionaire is Xanterra.