Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park lies in north-eastern Arizona, in the Painted Desert. It protects what the Park Service calls "one of the world's largest and most vivid collections of petrified wood". Its boundary takes in about 221,000 acres, two thirds of it federal land. The park had 559,254 recreation visits in 2024. Its 2025 figure, 315,951, is incomplete in the Park Service's own monthly series, which shows zero visits for October 2025.

A visit is one 28-mile road between Interstate 40 and Highway 180, open only by day, and most visitors spend two to three hours on it. We checked the figures below on 28 October 2026 on the Park Service's pages, alerts and visitor counts, the US Naval Observatory's sun tables and NOAA's normals.

Why will you never see sunset from the Petrified Forest park road?

The Petrified Forest park road is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day of the year, so a visitor in a car sees neither sunrise nor sunset there. It closes only on Thanksgiving, 26 November 2026, and on Christmas Day. The Park Service publishes no other schedule for the road.

The sun times are the US Naval Observatory's for the north entrance, in Arizona time. Even on the shortest day the road closes eleven minutes before sunset. At closing time the gate shuts, rangers sweep the road, and cars still inside open the gate on their way out. The park's FAQ mentions "usually a half hour grace period".

Holbrook's city website prints a 6 p.m. close in summer, but no Park Service page does, so plan on 5 p.m. In winter the park may open late until the roads are safe. The only visitors in the park at dawn or dusk are hikers sleeping in the wilderness area on a free permit.

Why does the Petrified Forest entrance station refuse cash?

The Petrified Forest entrance stations take credit and debit cards only. The fees page says "This park does not accept cash." The bookstores, gift shops and diner inside take both cash and cards. The nearest bank or ATM is in Holbrook.

A private car pays $25 for seven days, a motorcycle $20 and a person on foot or bicycle $15. Children aged 15 and under enter free. Petrified Forest is not on the 2026 list of eleven parks with a $100 surcharge for non-residents. Two adults from abroad in one car therefore pay $25 for the week, exactly what Americans pay.

The $250 non-resident annual pass covers this park too, but it only pays off on a trip that adds surcharge parks such as the Grand Canyon. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors lists them. None of the park's pages we read mentions an entrance reservation or timed entry. The last fee-free day of 2026 is Veterans Day, 11 November, and it now applies to US residents only.

Taking petrified wood from the park is a federal offence. The souvenir wood sold in shops comes from private land outside the boundary, according to the Park Service.

Which way should you drive Petrified Forest's 28-mile road?

Petrified Forest's road runs 28 miles north to south, from Interstate 40 exit 311 to Highway 180. The Park Service routes westbound drivers in at exit 311 and out to Highway 180. Eastbound drivers leave the interstate at exit 285 in Holbrook and take Highway 180 for 19 miles to the south entrance.

The road is the same in either direction, and the park describes its two halves plainly. The north end holds the Painted Desert views and the human story, and the densest petrified wood lies in the south. Driving straight through takes about an hour.

The mileages in the table are the park's own. There is no public transport to or within the park, and no drinking water at the stops. Water is available only at the Painted Desert Community Complex and at Rainbow Forest Museum.

The main road takes larger vehicles and trailers, but the car parks at Pintado Point and Agate Bridge are small. Bicycles, e-bikes included, may use the park road. Between 15 June and 30 September the monsoon can flood washes and the road, and the park's instruction is never to cross one.

What is open at the Painted Desert end while its visitor centre is shut?

The Painted Desert Visitor Center at exit 311 is closed for construction, and on 28 October 2026 the Park Service gave no reopening date. On that day the park's alert said the gift shop, petrol station and restaurant at the north entrance were open, with toilets. The picnic pavilion, a short signed loop trail and the start of the Tawa Trail remain in use as well.

The diner behind the gift shop closes at 3 p.m., and a convenience store stands next to the petrol station. Visitor information has moved 2 miles down the road to the Painted Desert Inn at Kachina Point. The inn opens from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a museum, bookstore, ice cream parlour and gift shop.

The inn began in 1924 as Herbert Lore's Stone Tree House, and the Park Service bought it in 1936. The Civilian Conservation Corps rebuilt it between 1937 and 1940 to plans by the Park Service architect Lyle Bennett. In 1947 and 1948 Mary Jane Colter of the Fred Harvey Company redid the interior. The Hopi artist Fred Kabotie painted its murals.

The Painted Desert Inn is no longer a hotel or a restaurant: its rooms have been closed since 1947 and its restaurant since 1963. It reopened as a museum and bookstore on 26 May 2006. The Painted Desert Rim Trail, 1 mile round trip, runs along the edge between Tawa Point and Kachina Point. The Tawa Trail continues 1.2 miles one way to the closed visitor centre.

An alert dated 22 December 2025 said the headquarters phones were down and was still posted on 28 October 2026. It gives the visitor centre's number as 928-235-2467.

Where does Route 66 cross Petrified Forest National Park?

Route 66 crosses Petrified Forest almost 6 miles from the north entrance. The Park Service calls this the only national park containing a segment of the old highway. Telephone poles and a raised roadbed mark its final alignment at a pullout built in 2006.

A Studebaker of the 1930s stands there; one Park Service page dates it 1932 and another 1936. The rest of the road, from Chicago to the Pacific, is in our road trip Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica.

The road was established on 11 November 1926 and decommissioned in 1985, so its centenary falls on 11 November 2026. Its unpaved stretch inside the park can be ridden by bicycle from the park road to the east boundary fence. Between the pullout and Puerco Pueblo the park road crosses the BNSF railway, which carries about 80 trains a day.

Puerco Pueblo, at mile 11, is a village of about a hundred rooms that ancestral Puebloan people occupied more than 600 years ago. The Park Service calls it the only such village easily accessible to the public. A loop of one third of a mile leads round it, and the Hopi and Zuni recognise the site as a Traditional Cultural Property.

Newspaper Rock, a mile further on, is an overlook above two large boulders bearing more than 650 petroglyphs. The trail down closed after a partial cliff collapse in the 1980s, so the free spotting scopes are the way to see them. This is not the Newspaper Rock in Utah, beside Highway 211.

Where is the petrified wood thickest in Petrified Forest?

The petrified wood is thickest at the southern end of Petrified Forest, according to the Park Service. Blue Mesa, about halfway through the park, sits at the top of a spur loop road. The Park Service gives that road as 3.5 miles on one page and about 5 miles round trip on another. Its 1-mile loop trail, partly paved and partly gravel, drops steeply at the start into blue, purple and grey badlands.

Agate Bridge, at mile 18, is a petrified log about 100 feet long spanning a 40-foot gully, propped on a concrete beam since 1917. Jasper Forest is an overlook above a bed of logs 216 million years old. Its old road was closed in 1965 to reduce the illegal removal of wood.

Crystal Forest, about mile 20, takes its name from the crystals in its logs, and parts of its 0.75-mile paved loop suit mobility devices. Rainbow Forest Museum, 2 miles from the south entrance, has fossil skeleton casts, a bookstore and a gift shop with snacks. Behind it, the Giant Logs Trail is a 0.4-mile paved loop with several sets of stairs. It passes "Old Faithful", a log almost ten feet wide at the base.

Near the south end, the Long Logs loop is 1.6 miles and the walk to Agate House 2 miles round trip, or 2.6 miles combined. Agate House is an eight-room pueblo built and occupied between 1050 and 1300 and reconstructed in the winter of 1933–34. Visitors must now stay at least 15 feet from it.

Can you spend a night inside Petrified Forest National Park?

Petrified Forest has no lodging, no campground and no car or RV camping, and parking overnight in a pullout is not allowed. The only night in the park is in the Petrified Forest National Wilderness Area, at least a mile from the car. The permit is free and is issued in person on the day, until 4:30 p.m., one per vehicle.

The park's pages name Rainbow Forest Museum and the Painted Desert Inn as places to get one. There is no water in the backcountry, and the Park Service suggests a gallon per person per day for summer hiking. Dogs on a leash of up to six feet are allowed everywhere outside buildings, the wilderness included.

Holbrook is the base: a Route 66 town founded in 1881 and the county seat of Navajo County. It lies 26 miles west of the north entrance on Interstate 40 and about 19 miles from the south entrance. On 28 October 2026 the Wigwam Motel on Old Route 66 listed a queen wigwam at $105 a night and a double at $115, both plus tax.

Arizona's own tax on lodging is 5.5%, and Holbrook adds a city tax whose current rate we could not confirm. The Park Service also points campers to Holbrook, to Lyman Lake and Homolovi State Parks, and to the Sitgreaves and Apache national forests.

How hot does the Painted Desert get in July?

The Painted Desert averages highs of 91 to 93°F in July, the warmest month, at the park's two weather stations. July and August bring afternoon monsoon thunderstorms, and the south station sees 72 days a year at 90°F or above. From October to April the Park Service warns of cold and possible snow.

The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 average highs and lows and rainfall. The south station records about 9.6 inches of rain a year and about 134 nights at or below freezing. In 2024 June was the busiest month, with 76,109 visits.

October is mild by day at 71 to 74°F, with nights near 40°F. In January highs reach about 48 to 50°F and nights fall to about 21 to 22°F. The park sits at an average elevation of about 5,800 feet, so the sun and the altitude both tell on a long walk.

What time is it at Petrified Forest when New Mexico changes its clocks?

Petrified Forest keeps Mountain Standard Time all year, because Arizona law rejects daylight saving time. Until 2 a.m. on 1 November 2026 the park is therefore an hour behind New Mexico and level with California. From then until March, New Mexico shows the same time as the park and California is an hour behind.

The Park Service warns drivers from New Mexico, Utah and the Navajo Nation to set their clocks back an hour in the summer season. The Navajo Nation, which keeps daylight saving time, lies to the north and east of the park. Our guide to Arizona explains the state's clocks in full. The other national parks in Arizona are Grand Canyon National Park and Saguaro National Park.

How far is Petrified Forest from Albuquerque, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon?

Petrified Forest's north entrance is 204 miles west of Albuquerque on Interstate 40, by the Park Service's count. Phoenix and Albuquerque have the nearest major airports, and Flagstaff, Show Low and Gallup have smaller ones. The park lies about 50 miles from the New Mexico border.

The figures marked as our own routing are approximate. A day from Flagstaff fits within the 8-to-5 hours. Grand Canyon National Park is a long day's drive away and better as a separate stop. Coming from Albuquerque or Gallup, our guide to New Mexico covers the road west.