16/63 – Petrified Forest National Park | 9.21-22.16

Petrified Forest is the only park I personally hadn’t visited on this trip (and one of only two parks this year that are new to me). I’ll admit it, I kept my expectations as low as possible, completely intentionally. And that was a good idea! Petrified Forest is a pretty crazy park, but the beauty is in the details.

We spent pretty much the entire day driving along the road from south to north, and stopping at all of the sites along the way. Most of the trails are paved, and pet friendly! We were wishing we could’ve had our dog.

We camped for free at this hilarious place outside of the south entrance of the park. It was such an experience! I love finding tiny little hidden gems like this.

I don’t know about you, but I think I could probably do a better triceratops than this one. Hahahaha.

I loved how you could see the bark and the wood petrified separately.

This log was so long!! Over 130 feet!

We had to drive back down to Agate House because I missed it… oops. When the road is only 15 miles though, it’s not a big deal!

Agate House was actually rebuilt by the CCC in the 40s, and they added a window that wouldn’t have been there originally- but I appreciated it for the photos!

Petrified wood as far as the eye can see!

Huge log!

Take ALLLLL the road trip photos!!

We got our kicks, that’s for sure.

At the end of the day we headed into the backcountry in the Painted Desert. This was absolutely, without a doubt, the best part of this trip. The park was pretty cool, but the backpacking really sealed the deal. We didn’t see another human for probably about 15 hours. We had been a little concerned about the weather due to the rain the previous day in Grand Canyon, and it did actually rain on us a bit as we were hiking in, but the clouds moved quickly and made for some INCREDIBLE photos (hellooooo double rainbow!)!

We hiked to the Onyx Bridge, which was actually a bit hard to find. I was grateful to have the GPS coordinates for it! It was pretty dark once we got there, so we didn’t spend a lot of time there.

After night fell, I took a few night shots. The Milky Way looked pretty amazing!

Ah, the STARS!!! They were so incredible. Seriously. It was blowing my mind.

The next morning we hiked out through the wash, which made things a lot more easy.

Stegosaurus Rock!! Hahaha.

Remnants of an old bridge from when this was still farm land.

At the end of the day, I’m so glad we visited this park, but it would not have been the same experience without the backpacking “trip.” It’s so secluded and quiet, even during the day. It’s definitely a park worth seeing!

Our Petrified Forest National Park “Must Do”:

Head into the backcountry in the Painted Desert, even for just a night! The stars are amazing, and it’s so peaceful and quiet.