february 2023

Petrified Forest National Park

Where: northeast Arizona

Directions: Interstate 40

Good to Know:  

* A rarity among national parks, if you can go there your dog likely can as well - even in the backcountry

Why so good:   

“Pets are allowed on any paved road or trail as well as all official Wilderness areas in the park.” That’s it - right from the source. You have arrived at the doggone dog-friendliest national park in America. The only place you can’t take your dog is inside buildings.

THE PAINTED DESERT.

At the Four Corners in Arizona the mineralized remains of an ancient Mesozoic forest were tens of millions of years in the making but the nation’s largest field of petrified wood wasn’t formally described until 1851. The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad built though this area in the 1880s brought profiteers to the forest. They carried off petrified wood specimens and dynamited the largest logs in search of quartz and purple amethyst crystals. In 1895 the State of Arizona began petitioning for federal protection and on December 8, 1906 Theodore Roosevelt designated the petrified forest as America’s second national monument. In 1962, with the addition of the scenic landscape of the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest became America’s thirty-first national park. A groomed trail traces the rim of the Painted Desert and drops into the valley for additional exploring.

THE INTERPRETIVE TRAILS.

The main park road travels north to south through the landscape with numerous shortish stops to investigate ancient petroglyphs and Puebloan artifacts, including the remains of a 100-room pueblo. Three paved loops - all less than a mile long - lead into the barren desert amidst remains of the hardened wood. Although short and easy to hike, these interpretive trails are completely without shade so have a supply of water ready on hot days. The Crystal Forest Trail meanders through the remains of obliterated petrified logs, leaving you to only imagine what these crystalized trees once looked like before the pillaging that led to the creation of the Petrified Forest National Monument. Some of those prehistoric trees can be seen on the Long Logs Path. Extinct conifers form the largest concentration of petrified wood left in the park. The Agate House Trail leads up a slight rise to a reconstructed Anasazi Indian Pueblo built entirely of colorful petrified wood sealed with mud. Also available to canine hikers is the one-mile Blue Mesa Trail. A sharp drop in the path leads to an amphitheater surrounded by banded badlands of bluish clay called bentontite. Rainwater is the brush that paints streaky patterns in the porous hills.