Painted Desert/Petrified Forest

Click for a larger view. Highlighted areas
are places we have visited so far.

The Grand Circle is our area of focus for the next year or so. The Colorado Plateau area of the Southwest is rich in national parks and interesting vacation sites. Luckily for us, it's all very close by as well. Several of the destinations make good day or weekend getaways.

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest areas are in the northeast corner of Arizona accessible from I-40. We stopped in the Visitor Center and picked up a self-guided driving tour CD. The CD was a little cheesy but it did provide information as we drove to the next view point. There were about 16 viewpoints along the tour.

Nana's interest in this area started many years ago back in Mrs. Baade's 4th grade science class. Mrs. Baade had visited the Four Corners area over the summer and brought back petrified wood, various rocks and Navajo souvenirs.  After seven years living in Arizona, we finally made the trip.

The area is interesting. It was a little windy and, since we had the dog with us, we weren't allowed to hike into the area.  If we had a perfect day and were hiking, the trip probably would have been even more interesting. We did see coyote in the area, also referred to as the Arizona Badlands. Lots of opportunities for pictures.

Painted Desert

Painted Desert

Petroglyphs

The Tepees in Petrified Forest

Petrified Wood

Beautiful skies