The Petrified Forest & Painted Desert National Parks, Arizona

As we drove through Arizona on I40 we took a detor through the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest. SO glad we did – certainly something not to be missed. The Painted Desert is a much smaller version of the Bad Lands in South Dakota but the colors are more red. Very beautiful.

You then drive a few miles, seeing a few “Bad Land” out crops before coming down to where the Petrified Wood is. We stopped at the Crystal Forest & walked the 0.8 mile trail. Just amazing to see all these tree trunks turned into rock!

Some of them have beautiful quartz in them:

Others you can see the rings like you would on a regular cut tree:

From a distance & even up close, without touching, some look like a rotten piece of tree trunk that is flaking away:

Truly incredible & if you are in this part of the USA, highly recommend this detor which takes you right back onto I40 & only adds 18 miles to your trip.

Liz