Petrified Forest National Park is in northeastern Arizona. In its south, the Rainbow Forest is full of colorful petrified wood. It’s home to the Rainbow Forest Museum, with its paleontology exhibits and many trail access points. In the park’s center are the petroglyphs of Newspaper Rock and the ruined village of Puerco Pueblo. To the north, the Painted Desert Inn, a 1930s adobe building, is a museum with Hopi murals.

For whatever reasons, had never visited this regional park. Had planned on two full days here but a delayed trip departure cut that to less than a day so kept busy. The South entrance has an automated gate which opens at 7 AM and I was a half-hour early. That meant I was the second vehicle into the park. Pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the park. The scenery was as expected but the amount, variety, and accessibility of petrified stuff made the visit.

Long Logs I would highly recommend and Agate Bridge was interesting because I was the only one there. The highlight of the hikes for me was dropping off Kachina Point and trying to find Onxy Bridge. Four mile round-tripper but the GPS waypoint turned up missing and it is a bit of a needle in a haystack thing. I didn’t really care as just mucking about was fine. There was stuff everywhere and there was no trail to follow. Liked it a lot.