Jasper Forest Trail

Hike through a dense collection of petrified logs and scattered flakes of colorful petrified wood.

Trail description

The hike to Jasper Forest is not a trail, rather a park service route. Only visitors who are comfortable hiking off trail with only vague indications of where to go should do this hike. While the route follows an old abandoned road built in the 1930s, it has mostly disappeared, except for an occasional clump of asphalt and some small sandstone abutments for culverts that were removed long ago. This hike can become quite difficult if the ground is wet because bentonite clay quickly becomes a gooey slick mess that gloms onto boots.

The Jasper Forest hike is 2.5 miles round trip. It begins at the Jasper Forest overlook, where an indistinct path drops into a small drainage near the spot where the road widens into the parking lot. Continue another few hundred yards down the drainage until you are close to the highway. Look left for the heavily eroded roadbed that drops off the rim. A couple of hundred yards below the rim, the road wraps gently to the right past a bluff with many rounded boulders.  The “road” then crosses a dry creek bed, bears right up the drainage, and then bears left around a small bluff. From here the road is a tiny bit more apparent as it winds along the base of the bluff.

The area below the bluff is dense with richly colored petrified logs, and chips of petrified wood pave the ground in some spots. Keep your eyes open for the occasional log sitting on a pedestal of soil. The logs protect the soil directly under them from eroding, while the neighboring unprotected soil is washed away, creating the pedestal. Please remember that taking any of the vibrantly colored stone chips is not only illegal within the park, it also robs the people who come after you of enjoying what you are experiencing.

After 200 hundred yards or so, the route bends to the right and goes around a point of the rim.  After rounding the point, the route crosses a shallow valley and broad creek bed on its way to a basin tucked into the rim with a small Chinle hill in the middle of it. The famous formation known as Eagle Nest Rock sat on top of the hill, but it collapsed during a heavy rain in 1941. The roadbed circles the hill and this is the end of the hike. Return the way you came. 

Directions

Drive north from the Rainbow Forest Museum about 7.5 miles and turn left at the Jasper Forest overlook. Drive south from the park headquarters near I-40 for roughly 18 miles and turn right at the Jasper Forest overlook. The trailhead is not marked. Park in the overlook parking lot and walk to the spot where the incoming road widens into the parking lot and look for a faint path going down a small drainage. See trail description for more information.