My trek from Foley, Alabama to the west is complete. I had a great time coming across Louisiana and Texas. I’ve learned that I want to spend some more time in Texas. My short time there has gotten me curious about the coastal areas and I definitely want to go to Big Bend.
But alas I’m at my first National Park stop. Petrified Forest. I had never been this far west till a couple of years ago. In 2020 and 2021 I flew to Colorado for a week and a long weekend. I fell in love with Colorado from that limited experience. I loved the experience of driving on this trip and seeing the change in the landscape. I’ve never experienced such vistas before.
On the drive from Santa Rosa, NM to Holbrook, AZ the landscape totally changed 3 to 4 times. I travelled parallel to Route 66 for most of this drive. I watched a season of KYD where they took a classic BlueBird Wonderlodge down this historic highway. I think I would enjoy doing that eventually.
So what about the Petrified Forest? Let me say that we have some beautiful places back east. I’ve hiked, rafted and kayaked some beautiful places. This place is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. I’m sure folks that live out here think the same thing when they come to east.
The word that kept running through my mind was Majesty. Petrified Forest is a large park. If you drive from the main gate to the south gate it’s probably 25 miles. There are plenty of scenic pull offs where you can get great photo’s without much exertion. Most have RV parking if you are visiting the park in your RV.
There’s a handful of trails or hikes. Most are out and back and less than 1.2 miles total. There are two that are around 2.5 miles and one that is 4 miles total, 2 miles out and 2 miles back. The 4 miler is the Onyx Bridge Trail. It takes you down from the Inn, into the little canyon and across the desert where you climb back out of the canyon. There was a ton of petrified trees in this area. This was a great little hike. I was blessed with excellent weather. It is easy to lose the trail in places. I used All Trails and it warns you if you get off course. It’s really not a big issue since you can see the Inn during the whole hike. It would be impossible to get lost during the daylight but you need the GPS to find the Onyx Bridge. I would. note that All Trails shows to trails, approx 5 miles each, to Martha’s Butte, that I could not find. There’s no parking where maps takes you and I didn’t see any trails heading away from the road. I haven’t had time to investigate this yet.
Petrified Forest has many different types of scenery. Everything is easy to get to and off the main road through the park. The roads and parking are well laid out to handle the visitors. I’m not an expert, that would be my friend Cory Lee, but it appeared that the park would be good for those with accessibility issues. I think most of the trails would be navigable by wheelchair and all the parking lots had handicap parking.
I camped 20 miles from the park. There is some camping right outside the South Gate but it looked like, little or no hookups. So if your well equipped for boon-docking I would recommend checking into those. I stayed at OK RV Park in Holbrook, AZ. Nice, clean, full hookups and only 18 minutes from either gate. Food and entertainment here is scarce and your a half hour from a decent grocery store or Walmart.
I would recommend the Mesa Italiana Restaurant for a meal. Everything else has just been so, so. Regardless of where you stay, two days should be plenty to see the whole park. It’s $25 to enter the park and it is one of the National Parks where you can purchase the yearly interagency passes for $80 that gets you into most all of the parks. I would recommend this if you are visiting more than one park. Petrified Forest is only 2 hours and 43 minutes from Grand Canyon so why wouldn’t you visit multiple parks?
This was my first Park-a-palooza stop and a great way to begin the adventure.
- Campgrounds, Curveballs, and Cold Beers
This summer was supposed to be spent in the great state of Wyoming, checking off some more national parks. The President and Mr. Musk had different plans. Due to the federal cuts, the national park scene has a lot of uncertainty. - Chateau Le Coeur
Just a short ways off of I-10 you will find a winery named Chateau Le Coeur. The owners moved to northern Florida from the Great Northwest. They have wineries and vineyards in Washington and Oregon. They have an interesting story they tell about starting the winery. - Sunday Morning Musings Ep. #6
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T. S. Eliot - WildEdge Brewing Collective
The food was delicious, at least the chicken salad sandwich, was very, very good. The locals were friendly and as I often do I spent a few beers in bar side communion with them. I am a little bummed that I did not pick up any packaged beer or swag from here.
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