The Ultimate One Day Itinerary for Petrified Forest National Park

*This post may contain affiliate links, which means we’ll receive a commission if you purchase through our links, at no extra cost to you. Please read our disclosure policy for more information.

Here is the ultimate one day itinerary for Petrified Forest National Park. This one-of-a-kind park, spanning across 230 square miles, boasts a unique landscape, including petrified wood, colorful badlands, and fascinating historical remnants. A day trip to Petrified Forest offers an adventure of discovery, blending history, geology, and natural beauty. This is the perfect park to see in a day and in our opinion is one that isn’t talked about often and is very underrated. To be honest, before we decided on this road trip we hadn’t even heard of Petrified Forest and we did about zero research before coming into the park which actually worked out in our favor because once we got into the park we were pleasantly surprised and all the history and beauty this park has to offer. 

A more dog-friendly park

When to Visit

In our opinion, the best time to visit would be April-October. The summer months will be busier, just like with other National Parks but still enjoyable since a lot of the day will be spent in the car going from site to site. Spring and Fall would be the best time to visit if you’re looking for milder temperatures. We visited in October and was actually cold in the morning and the evening! When we visited it was very windy with gusts up to 80 mph, so be prepared for strong winds in the park. 

What to Pack

How to get there

The closest airport is Phoenix at about 3 hours away. From here you could rent a car or an rv to travel in. The best option in our opinion would be renting or taking a Camper Van/RV road trip to the park especially if you plan to visit other parks while on your trip. You can find rental vans on platforms like RVshare and Outdoorsy. Taking your own camper or renting one would be our top recommendation, especially being in the southwest because there are so many cool places to go in the area.

Where to stay

In our opinion the best way to see this park and really any of the southwest is by camper, van, RV, or whatever it is you prefer. This way you can roadtrip around to all the parks and in most cases you can stay very close to the park making early access very easy. Right before you enter the park on the south side there is an RV park and gift shop called Petrified Forst Gift shop and RV park. Nightly rates are around $25 for a full hookup. This is great for not having to travel far before or after visiting the park. Right across the street there is also an old RV park that is no longer in use that you can stay at for free pending open spaces. There are no amenities here but it worked great for us to pull in to sleep for the night before heading into the park the next day. 

Something different about this park is that it is not available to access at any time. Many parks allow you to enter at any time only charging a fee during day hours but at Petrified Forest the gates are only open from 8 am – 5 pm. There are also signs throughout the park that state you have to be in your vehicle and leaving by this time. I believe they also have park rangers who sweep the area before they leave to make sure everyone has left the park. This is largely due to protecting all of the petrified wood and making sure to prevent someone from stealing after hours. If you want to get a piece of petrified wood there are gift shops just outside the park where you can purchase some. These pieces you can buy come from outside the park, which is why it is so important to protect what is natural inside the park. 

A little back story about Petrified Forest because we had no idea what to expect, it gets the name from all the petrified wood that exists in the park. The petrified wood forms when wood stems are buried in wet sediments saturated with dissolved minerals. Since there is a lack of oxygen which slows wood decay, minerals then replace what would be wood. We were absolutely fascinated by this and seeing something that looks man-made happen naturally. Another crazy thought is that these trees were once in existence when dinosaurs were roaming the area and they are still present today is just really cool. 

The road inside the park is 28 miles long and filled with some great spots to stop at and if you have time to stop at them all then we highly recommend you do so. We stopped at them all but there are some that are more exciting and worth spending more time at than others so here is where we recommend stopping while driving through the park. We stared at the south entrance and we liked how that turned out for us so we will be going in order starting from this entrance. 

• Rainbow Forest Museum
  • Surrounding the museum you can find petrified wood dispersed around it and inside you can see fossils and get more information on the area. 
• Crystal Forest Trail
  • This is a paved trail that is only 0.75 miles in length and takes you through a petrified wood field. You get to see so many different sizes and colors of wood and there are signs giving you more information on the process of the wood and how it got here. This was Keith’s favorite part of the park because he loves wood so this was fascinating to him lol. 
• Jasper Forest
  • This stop gives some history of people visiting this park and shows how the landscape has changed over time. 
• Agate Bridge
  • This is a very cool stop showing a still-in-tact long piece of petrified wood that has formed a bridge. They have now supported underneath with concrete so it stays together but they say that at some point it will collapse so if you can see this before that happens, you should. 
• Blue Mesa Scenic Loop
  • This is a great stop to see the colorful bentonite hills. This portion has the most blue in it and the perfect trail to hike and see them up close and even go down to the base of them. 
• Newspaper Rock
  • At this stop, you will have a short walk to see some ancient petroglyphs. They even have telescopes so you can look at them more closely. 
• Puerco Pueblo
  • Here you can see more petroglyphs and some ruins and information about the Puebloans who once inhabited the area. 
• Painted Desert/Tawa Point
  • Here you can take in the views of the colorful bentonite hills. 

This park is perfect for everyone, there are plenty of hikes for those who love adventures but also allows you to take in all the views and sights without having to do much hiking if you don’t want to. After visiting we would say that this park is very underrated and if we were in the area again we would definitely go back. If you are going on a southwest road trip we would highly recommend adding Petrified Forest as a stop on your trip.

Want more travel itineraries?