The last stop on my route to the Grand Canyon North Rim in July 2021 was the Petrified Forest National Park. There is an exit to this national park from I40, but I elected to go into Holbrook, Arizona and go to the south entrance, since there is an RV site just outside the park entrance there. That RV site does not take reservations, so I wanted to be sure to get there early to increase my chance of getting a site. There are actually two places across the road from each other here, where RV’s can park. One site is free, first come, first serve, but has no hookups. The other has electric hook up, but no water. I did not need a water hookup, but I wanted electric, since I expected it to be hot and I wanted to be able to use my A/C or, or at least a fan.
I pulled into the Petrified Forest Gift Shop and RV Park and went into the gift shop to secure a site. Some of the reviews that I had read about this site said the staff were unfriendly, but I did not find that to be the case. Instead, I would characterize the two staff/owners as matter of fact and business like. They were not the bubbly personality types we’ve all come to expect at tourist lodgings, motels and hotels, but they were not unfriendly.
I jokingly requested a site with shade and was matter of factly told that there was no shade. I had noted that fact already. There are scattered trees around the edge of the RV parking area, but the vegetation on the trees is insufficient to provide any significant shade at any time of the day.
After getting my assigned site, I drove into the park for a quick tour. This park has gates at the entrances that open at 8AM and close at 5PM, so there is no way in the summer to be anywhere in this park for sunset or sunrise photography.
The visitor center is not far from the entrance and I stopped here, but I did not go in, since I was practicing “social distancing” during the COVID-19 pandemic. I picked up a guide brochure from an outside location behind the visitor center and proceeded to walk the paths. There were a substantial number of visitors, but not so many that one could not maintain a suitable distance from others.
Since it was mid-day with harsh overhead light, I elected not to carry around my heavy DSLR and to shoot with my iPhone camera. I do not even pretend to have great photos from this park.
There appear to be educational opportunities here and this seems to be a good place for lessons in the geological history of this area.
The base of the petrified tree in the photo above is about 10 feet in diameter. This is a clear indication of the size of the trees in the prehistoric forest that was once here.
Indeed, the size of the petrified logs here is impressive.
What a magnificent forest this must have been!
I noted a little girl and her dog watching me, so I had to include them in a photo.
Satisfied that I had seen everything behind the visitor center, I decided to hike to the “Agate House”, which was mentioned in the brochure. The Agate House is little over a mile from the visitor center. It was hot, but, with the temperature in the low 90s, not nearly as hot as I had expected for this time of the year. I took a bottle of cold water with me to be sure I did not get dehydrated. The hike is an easy one and is on a paved trail. The first portion of the hike is on the remnant of an asphalt road, which ends at what used to be a parking area, then the trail continues on a narrower path to the house.
Along the route, I caught a glimpse of a colorful desert creature moving amid the rocks beside the trail.
Fortunately, this colorful lizard remained perched on a rock just long enough for me to get a good photo before it disappeared into the jumble of broken petrified tree pieces.
The Agate House is actually a partially restored Native American dwelling. The restoration was done via a works program during the Great Depression. Current practice is to leave ruins as they are found, rather than to attempt reconstruction.
I returned to my vehicle at the visitor center parking lot and continued my quick tour of this park.
More later,
Ken