Petrified Forest National Park has two distinct wilderness areas, one in the Painted Desert region, the second in the Rainbow Forest region. Both areas are managed under the same rules and regulations dictated by the 1964 Wilderness Act:

"In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas of the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness. ...."

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