Painted By Giants (Arizona)

We visited the Petrified Forest not to see the strange silica laden wood or dinosaur fossils (which were still interesting) but to see the Painted Desert. Most of the desert is located within the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona, but part of it lies just south within the Petrified Forest National Park. The environment has been carved by the weather over many years into peaks and troughs and the varying minerals within the rock make this area one of the most beautiful and colorful landscapes in the world. If you want to see this park in half a day or less you can easily take the 27 mile Petrified Forest Road that runs between I-40 to US-180 and stop at the sights along the way. We got out and looked around at many of the stops and lookouts but only found time for one walk; the Puerco Peublo – exploring the ruins of ancestral Puebloan dwellings.