In Fall of 2015, I was just beginning my quest to visit a National Park Service property in each state. At the time, my son was in college in San Francisco, and I would occasionally go out to visit him. I decided to take a week off work, visit Matt in school for a few days, then go on a VERY QUCK tour of the southwest. I visited New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado all in one trip. I flew home from Denver. This was one of my first solo road trips, and I learned a lot while doing it.

Petrified Forest National Park is in the East Central region of Arizona, and it is massive. There are many square miles to this park. I entered the park near the north side of the park, off of Interstate 40. The park road is actually part of the historic Route 66. At this entrance, there is a visitor center and a very large park store.

I know that it is unlawful to remove anything from a National Park, and I had no intention of doing so, but at this park, I saw something that I haven’t seen at any other park. At the entrance, there is a weigh station. Apparently, they weigh your car going in and out of the site. The petrified rocks are SUPER heavy, so if you were trying to hide one in your trunk on the way out, you would get caught!

I stopped at the visitor center and bought a rock of my own – it is nice and polished and beautiful! It sits on a shelf in my house now, collecting dust but also giving me a nice memory of that day in Arizona.

There is one road that travels through the park, with several areas to pull off to see sites. Some are there to take advantage of the amazing vistas of the painted desert, and some are there to guide you to areas where petrified wood can easily be seen.

I was unprepared to see how MUCH petrified wood there actually was, and how pretty it was. The way the wood looks once it is petrified is really interesting and is contingent to the types of minerals in the soil around it. It is a stark, but surprisingly interesting park. The official NPS site for the Petrified Forest National Park is at: https://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm

#Arizona