Painted Desert Inn - Petrified Forest et Painted Desert

Blue Mesa - Petrified Forest et Painted Desert

Crystal Forest - Petrified Forest et Painted Desert

Arizona, United States

Petrified Forest et Painted Desert

DesertHeritageNature

4.6 / 5· Hidengo

The notebook of Petrified Forest et Painted Desert

Walk toward a clearer light.

Petrified wood, multicolored badlands and vast horizons along the old Route 66.

At your own pace

Climb Explore Contemplate

Identity summary

Ideal duration

2 to 5 days

Best time

Spring · Summer · Autumn · Winter

Car

Recommended car

Type of stay

Desert · Heritage · Nature

Accessibility

Variable accessibility

Rhythm

Sweet rhythm

General presentation

Petrified Forest et Painted Desert

Petrified wood, multicolored badlands and vast horizons along the old Route 66.

To understand what Petrified Forest and Painted Desert are, you need to look at Painted Desert Inn, Blue Mesa and Crystal Forest. These places give us a view of a territory marked by desert areas, heritage and natural spaces and allow us to move from emblematic sites to more intimate stages.

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For a stay of 2 to 5 days, a quiet rhythm works well. Also to be anticipated: conditions to be checked according to the season. A car is usually the easiest way to connect different sectors. Accessibility varies from site to site and deserves to be checked step by step.

Newspaper Rock - Petrified Forest et Painted Desert

Strengths and constraints

Strengths

Painted Desert Inn
Blue Mesa
Crystal Forest

Before you choose

Car often useful
Conditions to be checked by season

Places worth visiting

A selection to start dreaming and organizing the stay — not an exhaustive list of everything there is to see.

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Painted Desert Inn

4.7 / 5· Hidengo1 to 2 hrs

Painted Desert Inn dominates the colorful badlands of the north of Petrified Forest, with its stone and adobe architecture linked to the historic road. Inside, the Hopi frescoes and details of the 1930s tell as much about the car tourism as the landscape that one came to contemplate from its windows.

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Blue Mesa

4.6 / 5· Hidengo1 to 2 hrs

Blue Mesa plunges into an amphitheater of blue, purple and grey badlands, striated like painted clay. The trail descends between soft hills and petrified trunks, making the park much more tactile than a simple view from the road.

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Crystal Forest

4.5 / 5· Hidengo1 to 2 hrs

Crystal Forest due its name to the quartz shrapnel that once shimmered in the petrified wood, still visible in abundance along the path. Broken trunks resemble logs left on the ground, but their mineral colours tell of a forest changed to stone over a dizzying weather.

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Newspaper Rock

4.5 / 5· Hidengo1 to 2 hrs

Newspaper Rock In dark blocks, a concentration of petroglyphs engraved by ancient peoples of the region is observed from a gazebo, often at the twin, which keeps a respectful distance while letting guess human silhouettes, animals, spirals and mysterious signs.