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Petrified Forest National Park Vacation and Trip Information

Best hotels, facts and information in Petrified Forest National Park, AZ.

Visitors to Petrified Forest National Park come to see the park’s large collection of petrified wood and the multi-colored badlands of the Painted Desert.

Visitors to Petrified Forest National Park come to see the park’s large collection of petrified wood and the multi-colored badlands of the Painted Desert.

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Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park is an archaeological treasure trove of ancient cultural artifacts, 200 million-year-old fossils and one of the world’s largest concentrations of petrified wood. Petrified Forest is situated in the red-hued Painted Desert, typified by colorful layered badland hills and flat-topped mesas, a region created by prehistoric riverbed mineral deposits.

Hike along one of several park trails including the Painted Desert Rim Trail and Crystal Forest to see the crystallized petrified wood and other plants that were washed into the region 200 million years ago, buried in sediment and cut off from oxygen, which effectively slowed the decay rate to a crawl. Another impressive site is Pueblo Puerco, an Ancient Puebloan (formerly known as Anasazi) 100-room sandstone village, which also features petroglyphs believed to have been records of astrological events.