Petrified Forest National Park, AZ

Previous : Day 5 (part 1) - Canyon De Chelly National Monument

Day 5 (part 2) of road trip.

From Canyon De Chelly to Petrified Forest took about 2 hours via highway 91. The fog got left behind somewhere along the way :)

From my research done on this park, a time of 3 to 4 hours was given as sufficient time to experience the park. We reached the park around 2 PM and entered via Painted Desert Visitor Center. We had our lunch and then picked park map from the visitor center.  Our first stop was Painted desert. The rocks were more red and light red color. I guess because of lack of sunlight, we did not see any other colors. Here is a picture of this Painted Desert. 

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Here is another picture with more red effect (I disabled some option - I think it was white balance in camera which made the picture have more red than normal).

In the park, we came across Painted Desert Inn. It was quite a place in the middle of almost nowhere.

After this, we stopped at several points for view of Painted Desert. Our next stop was Puerco Pueblo where we went on the small trail. I think the Pueblo here was much smaller in comparison to what we had seen in Mesa Verde or Canyon De Chelly. The Tepees was quite a revelation where you can see badland hills erosion and all those colors. 

Our next stop was Blue Mesa, which turned out to be the best part of the park. This area (along with Crystal Forest) is a must see in the park. Here you will come across badland hills in all its glory. The sun was coming out once in a while which enhanced the colors that can be seen on these hills.

We stopped along the road at several points and then decided to take the trail (what a wise decision). In my view, this trail is the highlight of the park. 

The trail is very well laid out and very mild in effort.But you get to see badland hills at very close distance with petrified wood lying around at the foot of hills. I spent good 30 mins in this area.

Here is a view of Agate Bridge which is petrified wood and now supported by a pillar.

After a very brief stop at Jasper Forest, we moved to Crystal Forest which was highly rated in the reviews I read of the park. This trail is full of petrified wood of all sizes and color, truly a wonderful and unique place.  We took tons of photographs in this area. Here are some big logs of petrified wood.

Here is a smaller log which had so many colors.

The trail took about 1 hour to complete. It was getting close to 5 PM which meant the park was about to close. We briefly stopped at Rainbow Forest Museum and Giant Logs before coming out of the park. This was a really unique park as I have not seen Petrified wood and badland hills at any other place.

We then drove for about 2 hours to reach our hotel in FlagStaff, AZ.

Next : Day 6 - Sedona, AZ