It took me half a day to understand why this park is called the Petrified Forest
I have a habit of not really looking too much into places before I go, because I like to be pleasantly surprised. So, I research the hike ratings and reviews and blogs, download the maps, and don't look at a lot of pictures because I like to see things for myself the first time. So, after a half a day of not one forest in sight, I caught a glimpse of the 220 million year old tree trunk that looked like a geode in the light and said, "Oooohhhhhhhh, got it". Not a forest anymore, guys. Not that I thought there would be a forest in the middle of what's currently a desert, but I hadn't stopped to ask the why of the name yet. Sorry to spoil it for anyone.
This park was much different than the others I've been to in that it can be appreciated fully without a lot of hiking involved. There's a north and south entrance, and the park map has just about everything on it in terms of what's at each turn off and such. The road through the park is 28 miles, and I recommend starting on the North side.
After the north entrance, you come to the beginning of the painted desert. It's pretty flat up that way, but the reds and the pinks in the rocks are very endearing and hard to fully capture. Moving south about half way through the park, you get into the blues and purples that are hard to believe are real. Then the southern most part has the highest concentration of the petrified wood remnants.
The one thing I was not prepared for was the WIND. It was some of the strongest, most consistent wind I've ever been in, like almost knocked me off my feet at a couple of points. I threw sunglasses on to protect my eyes from the dirt and a buff on to keep my hair from becoming one solid knot. It was in the 60s for temp, but the wind was chilly.
Historic Blue Forest Trail
At the visitor's center, there is a collection of more off the grid trail guides that go step by step into where these backcountry hikes take you. This was one you could not accidently stumble onto, as it starts on the side of the road and there is nothing but a parking pad at the trail head. Then you head over toward the mesas and the magic ensues. The trail takes you up the mesas and through a whole canyon like area of them, and connects to the Blue Mesa paved trail - which the guide for this trail doesn't tell you. So, the Blue Mesa trail is a mile paved, and the Blue Forest trail is 2.8 miles out and back, so this 3.8 miles took me about 2 hours.
The connection between these two trails was not very clear, however. You go from the top of a mesa to the bottom. After doing the loop of the Blue Mesa trail, getting back up to the Blue Forest tral was perplexing. I referred back to my guide from the park, and it said "Pay attention to how you got down, because getting back up is not as straight forward." and then it ended. They weren't wrong, though. I knew where I had come from, but could not remember if it was down the left side or right side of that one particular mesa. The trail coming down was steep gravel and precarious and not well defined, so I expected the same going up, and picked what looked like a trail on the left side. It was not the trail, and I ended up scrambling up loose rocks on my hands and feet to get back up, because I realized about half way up I was not in the right place, and going back down felt less safe than going back up. I hate that I did this, honestly. I would never want to disturb these artifacts that have been here for 220 million years because I didn't pay enough attention to where I was going. So, word of caution- really pay attention to where you came down if you decide to connect these trails because nothing is labeled. This was my fault, and ultimately nothing bad happened to me (other than a couple of cuts on my hands from the rocks), but a good lesson in paying attention to where you came from if you're going back that direction without a clear guide.
Life lessons aside, I really loved this trail. I sat and ate a sandwich once I got into the mesas, and there were only a couple of people coming down this trail as I was headed back. This was my favorite part of the park, and this extra trail is a really cool way to see something I would have had no idea was available to be explored.
More Petrified Wood
The southern aspect of the park has a couple of different trails containing more petrified logs, and they really are cool to look at. The southern entrance visitor's center also has dinosaur skeletons that I am a total nerd for. I spent 8 hours total in this park looking around, and it was definitely a smaller scale than the rest of my trip, but I'm glad I stopped by.
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