Petrified Forest National Park

Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park is full of fossilized wood scattered across the Painted Desert

Declared one of the nation’s first national monuments in 1906, it received park status more than 50 years later. Today, you can enjoy over 52,000 acres of designated wilderness; visit the Painted Desert, a restored pueblo, and a protected section of historic Route 66; and learn about the conditions that created this astounding collection of fossilized plants and animals.

Visiting the park

Triassic Park might be a better name for Petrified Forest National Park given that the petrified trees, fossils, and technicolor landforms were originally created during the Triassic Period, about 225 million years ago. You can access this geologic wonderland via two entrances, connected by a 28-mile road through the park’s middle. The north entrance is about 25 miles east of Holbrook, Arizona on Insterstate 40. Be sure to stop at the Painted Desert Visitor Center for exhibits and a 20-minute orientation video. While the northern portion offers sweeping views of the Painted Desert, the majority of the petrified logs and developed trails are in the southern section of the park (the south entrance is about 19 miles east of Holbrook on Highway 180).

A storied path to protection

As the transcontinental railroad crossed northern Arizona for the first time, tourists began to explore the region. They also began to collect souvenirs of petrified wood to take home, and soon after, entrepreneurs began collecting and selling large amounts of colorful petrified wood. Local residents became alarmed that if petrified wood became scarce, tourists would no longer visit and a significant source of income would be lost. At the request of local residents and businessmen, the Arizona territorial legislature petitioned Congress in 1895 to designate the area as a national park. Though that effort failed, President Theodore Roosevelt set the area aside as a national monument, and in 1962 the monument was finally designated Petrified Forest National Park. In 2004, President George W. Bush signed a bill expanding the park by about 125,000 acres. However, most of the lands surrounding the park are privately owned, and Congress did not appropriate funds to purchase those lands.

Trails: Jasper Forest Trail