164. See the Petrified Forest

When we started planning out trip to Arizona for spring training, I advised the hubby there were a couple things I wanted to do. One of them was the Petrified Forest.

The Petrified Forest National Forest is near Holbrook, AZ. It is actually two parks in one -- The Painted Desert in the northern part of the park and the Petrified Forest in the southern part. I assumed we could just go to the southern part of the park since I only wanted to do see the Petrified Forest. You can but it's much easier to see both. Depending on which way you are coming from depends on which entrance is best to use -- the Northern Entrance right off I-40 or the Southern Entrance closer to Holbrook. It doesn't matter what entrance you use, you will end driving through the entire park (28 miles) to get out the other side. Yes, you can only do part of the park but then you need to turn around -- much easier to drive through the whole thing. Besides the views are totally worth it.

5 Things I discovered about The Petrified Forest National Park

1. The Painted Desert is amazing -- and to think I was going to skip this part of the park. There are plenty of overlooks and photo ops along the 28 mile journey though the park.

2. Plan on getting to the park by 3:30. It closes at 5 and after 5 you have to be on the way out and not stop anymore. We get through around 3:30-4:00 and I felt rushed. We barely got to see the Petrified Forest -- okay some of that was the hubby's doing too. Give yourself that extra 30 to 60 minutes so you can enjoy the park.

3. It can be cold and rainy. I forget that even though we are in Arizona, the Petrified Forest is technically in the mountains and it's at like 4000 feet. Dress for the weather -- my sweatshirt was fine but a jacket would have been better in the mist along with pants not capris.

4. The Petrified Forest is really just a bunch of old wood that looks like it is haphazardly thrown across the landscape. It really wasn't that exciting. Maybe if we could have hiked a few of the trails, it would have been better but drive-by viewing wasn't all that impressive.

5. There are actually 2 passport stamps for this National Park -- one for the painted desert and one for the petrified forest. I was quite happy to find this out when we stopped at the visitor center to get my stamp.

This was a great stop. It was probably better than the Grand Canyon. I won't mind going back here and spending more time exploring the trails and enjoying the scenery.