So here’s the thing…  when someone tells you not to sleep on the Petrified Forest National Park, you should definitely not sleep on the Petrified Forest National Park.   Conveniently located right along our travel route, (I40 through Arizona) it was a super-easy call to add it to the itinerary.  Pretty much on the recommendation alone we decided to check it out.  I looked into how to get there, but not much about what was there, (kind of on purpose, sort of like avoiding movie spoilers) and it was well worth the side trip and the time.  A really pleasant surprise.

Filled with more geology than you can shake a stick at, the park has you standing next to, walking through or even sitting on extraordinarily marvels of nature that are, in many cases, 225 million years old.  From the sweeping, desolate seeming vistas that overlook highly eroded and colorful badlands and painted deserts that are millions of years in the making, to the tepees that demonstrate sedimentation and erosion from before the Jurassic period, everywhere you look is blatantly in-your-face evidence of the effects of near eons of time, wind, water, heat, pressure, erosion and tectonic upheaval.

And what would any late Triassic wasteland be without a generous helping of fossils, of both plant and animal variety? From 9 different and identifiable – and now extinct – varieties of petrified (fossilized) trees, to giant crocodile-like dinosaurs, (phytosaurs) Salamander-like amphibians, (Buettneria) and numerous other dinosaurs, to snails, clams and other invertebrates.  The fossil record from this area is deep, plentiful and available for viewing.

We started at the northern entrance, off the I40 and near the original Route 66.  There’s even a Route 66 memorial where the original old road used to be that features a Studebaker monument.  Heading further north along the park road passed numerous pull-offs featuring painted desert and shortgrass plain viewpoints and then headed back south past I40 and extending 28 miles further south, the park road hits all the major points of interest; Blue Mesa, Newspaper Rock, Agate Bridge, the Tepees, Jasper Forest, Crystal Forest, Long Logs, Giant Logs, and more.  There’s really more than can be covered in a single day if you’re spending significant time at each place.  Unfortunately, there are no overnight stays or vehicle offroading (even bicycle) allowed in the park, but for more adventurous types there are backpacking and longer hiking areas that can be accessed with a permit.  We did only have the one day to spend, but I’m looking forward to revisiting when I can take a little more time, and photographically make better use of time-of-day.

Bottom line… hey, don’t sleep on the Petrified Forest National Park.