Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions at PEFO

The Visit

Where is the bathroom? (Most frequently asked question in the National Parks)

• Painted Desert Visitor Center

• By the main parking area
• Through the gift shop at the back of the diner

• Painted Desert Inn

• Lower level, northeast corner, outside entrance

• Rainbow Forest Visitor Center

• inside the museum, on either side of the lobby
• inside the Curio Shop

• Bathrooms are also located at Puerco Pueblo

Where can we buy food?

• Painted Desert Visitor Center

• Diner behind the Ortega Gift Shop. They close at 3 pm but have a few “to go” items available until the gift shop closes.
• Convenience store adjacent to the gas station.

• Painted Desert Inn

• Ice cream counter on first level, also serves soda, chips, and sometimes has “to go” sandwiches.

• Rainbow Forest Curio Shop

• Pre-packaged ice cream bars, soda, chips, candy bars, microwavables, and “to go” sandwiches.

Where can we have a picnic?

• Painted Desert Visitors Center: two covered areas in the courtyard
• Painted Desert Inn: tables to the left of the entrance (uncovered)
• Hòzhò Point: multiple covered tables
• Rainbow Forest: covered tables near the east end of the parking lot

Do you know a good restaurant, hotel, or business in town?There are many good businesses nearby, but we are not allowed to make recommendations. The closest place to get food after leaving the park on I-40 are truck stops, about 15 miles, both east and west. From the south end of the park, Holbrook is about 18 miles away to the west.

Where can we camp? At the present time there is only wilderness area camping in the park. Campers must take all supplies with them and travel at least a mile from the trailhead. Free permits are issued at the Painted Desert Visitor Center, Painted Desert Inn, and Rainbow Forest Museum. There is also camping in many of the nearby communities such as Holbrook. There is also camping in Lyman Lake and Homolovi State Parks and the Sitgreaves/Apache National Forest.

What time is it… really? The four clocks on the wall at PDVC are correct. Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation), is on Mountain Standard Time throughout the year. Daylight Savings is not observed in most of Arizona. Therefore, travelers from New Mexico, Utah, and the Navajo Nation during the Daylight Savings Time season will need to reset their clocks back one hour.

Where is there an ATM or a bank?The closest can be found in the town of Holbrook. Park bookstores, gift shops, and the diner accept both cash and credit cards. The park entrance stations only take credit or debit cards.

What is the difference between a national monument and a national park? The Antiquities Act of 1906 gives the president of the United States the power to set aside federal land as a national monument through presidential proclamation. In 1906, Petrified Forest was in the second group of national monuments established, along with the Montezuma Castle and El Morro. Devil’s Tower in Wyoming was the first.To create a national park takes an act of Congress. National parks are usually set aside to protect more than one resource. Petrified Forest was redesignated as a national park in 1962. Our resources include not only petrified wood but also archeological, paleontological, historic sites, and native grassland.

How big is Petrified Forest National Park? The park is currently over 200,000 acres in size. In 2004, President George W. Bush signed a bill that has authorized expanded boundaries for Petrified Forest National Park. The expansion increases the park acreage up to 218,533 acres when privately owned land adjacent to the park becomes available for purchase.

What can I take from the park? Pictures and memories! All park resources are protected so that all visitors may enjoy them. It is against the law to remove any of the natural (petrified wood, other rocks, plants, animals) or cultural resources (pottery pieces, arrowheads, Route 66 debris), including picking flowers. Flowers provide seeds for the next year. Plants are also an important source of food for many animals in the park.

Traveling Through the Park

Where can I get a map? Visitors can request a trip planner before they come to the park through the park’s website, over the phone, mail, or email. They can pick up the trip planner at the visitor centers and will be given one when they stop at the entrance station.

How long is the drive? The drive through the park is 28 miles. Driving the road at the posted speed limit without stopping takes about an hour. Most visitors spend 2 to 3 hours enjoying the park, while others sometime return over multiple days.

Where is the Painted Desert? Is it part of this park? The Painted Desert stretches for approximately 930,000 acres (1500 square miles) from the east side of the Grand Canyon to the town of St. Johns, AZ, near the New Mexico border. The entire park is within the Painted Desert, the red section mainly at the north end, blue in the middle, and gray with maroon and purple bands at the south end.

Where are pets allowed in the park? Pets are allowed everywhere in the park except inside buildings. Pets must be on a leash, no longer than six feet, and the owner must clean up after their pet. BARK Ranger certificates can be obtained at the visitor centers.

Can I ride my bike/mountain bike in the park? Bikes (including ebikes) are allowed along the park road. No bikes are allowed on trails (except the first ½ mile of the Agate House/Long Logs Trails) or in the wilderness area. There are several bike routes that are pretty rugged so best left to mountain bikes, three at the south end and one at the north end. Visitors can find out their location at the visitor centers. From the Superintendent’s Compendium:

1. the unpaved portion of Old Route 66 from the main park road to the east boundary fence;
2. the eastern portion of Old Highway 180 in the Rainbow Forest area from its intersection with the main park road to the east boundary;
3. the portion of the Long Logs trail from its intersection with the main park road, continuing to the trailhead loop area approximately ½ mile up the trail;
4. the trail beginning at the Rainbow Forest Picnic Area, and continuing to the base of the mesa, ending at a loop in the road (approximately 1 mile in length).

Can I take my RV through the park? Yes, the main road is fine for larger vehicles and trailers as are most of the pull-outs. However, the parking lots at Pintado Point and Agate Bridge are fairly small and should be avoided by large rigs or those towing other vehicles. Visitors are welcome to leave their large rigs in the visitor center parking lot while they tour the park in their car/truck.

Can I hike anywhere in the park? Day hiking is allowed in most areas of the park as long as you legally and safely park your vehicle. You can park in one of the many marked parking areas or park alongside the park road as long as all four tires are to the outside of the white line. There are also Off the Beaten Path hikes that encourage visitors to explore. If a trail is provided, visitors are expected to stay on the trail.Closed areas in the park include “Authorized Vehicle Only” road, the area North of Puerco Pueblo, below the overlook at Newspaper Rock, below the first three pull-outs at Blue Mesa and the housing areas at PDVC, PDI, and RFM. Also, any area marked with a “Closed” sign. See the Superintendent’s Compendium for maps of currently closed areas.

What happens at closing time? At closing time, the gate is closed. Visitors leaving after the park is closed will activate the gate with their vehicle and it will close behind them. Law enforcement rangers sweep the roads, making sure everyone has exited. Should a visitor still be in the park at closing time they are asked to continue to the exit without stopping. There is usually a half hour grace period, depending on the seasonal hours of the park.

Plants and Animals

Are there animals or plants in the park I might see? There are hundreds of plant and animal species that make their home here. This is a grassland environment that features golden buckwheat, saltbush, sagebrush, cliffroses, junipers, cottonwood trees, dozens of different kinds of grasses, and hundreds of different kinds of wildflowers.What you see depends on the time of day, the time of year, and your observation skills. Many of the species are nocturnal and are not seen by visitors because the park is closed at night. The largest animals in the park are pronghorn, elk, mule deer, coyotes, bobcats, and golden eagles. Pronghorns are also referred to as antelope, but that is an incorrect term as they are not actually related to that Old World group of animals. Their closest relative is a giraffe! Other animals include ravens, kit foxes, bullsnakes, collared lizards, northern harriers, spadefoot toads, and scorpions… too many to name here! The park website and iNaturalist are both good references for both plants and animals.

What are some of the animals that live in the park? Hundreds of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates live in the park. Many are nocturnal, only coming out at night. Others migrate, living in the park during certain seasons. Some of the most common animals in the park include Bobcats, Coyotes, Mule Deer, American Pronghorn, Cottontail Rabbits, Black-Tailed Jackrabbits, Pallid Bats, White-Tailed Packrats, Deer Mice, Golden Eagles, Common Ravens, Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, Scaled Quails, McGillivray’s Warblers, House Finches, Great Horned Owls, Hopi Rattlesnake, California Kingsnake, Red-Spotted Toads, Couch’s Spadefoot Toads, Blond Desert Tarantulas, Bark Scorpions, Bluet Damselfly, Velvet Ants, Fairy Shrimp, and Solpugids—just to name a few.

What are some of the plants that live in the park?
Most of the park is short-grass prairie, but there are various other habitats based on moisture, soil type, elevation, and more. Some of the plants that make their home in the park include Fremont Cottonwood, One-seed Juniper, Coyote Willow, Four-winged Saltbush, Green Mormon Tea, Rubber Rabbitbrush, Sand Sagebrush, Needle-and-Thread Grass, Purple Three Awn, Blue Grama Grass, Whipple’s Fishhook Cactus, Walkingstick Cholla, Starvation Prickly Pear, Fee's Lip Fern, Rock Moss, Broadleaf Yucca, Colorado 4 O’clock, Golden Mariposa Lily, Antelope-Horns, Fineleaf Woollywhite, Narrowleaf Paintbrush, and Biscuitroot—and so many more.

Weather

How much rainfall do you receive here? Does it snow? Is it always windy?The average rainfall is about 10 inches, but the region has been in drought for a long time, much of which comes during the rainy or monsoon season in late summer. Winter snowstorms and spring rain account for the rest. The wind blows frequently. It is strongest at the change of seasons as we move from winter into spring, indicating the change of weather direction from the Pacific to the Southwest.Monsoon is a season like summer or winter. It is not a storm instead being a time when thunderstorms are more common as moisture comes up from the South/Southwest. Typically it is late summer, but is officially June 15-September 30.

Petrified Wood

Was the petrified wood brought in and placed here? All of the wood is here naturally – it is the original reason for the park. Rainbow Forest Museum was built where it is because of the large concentration of colorful petrified wood. The logs on display in the PDVC courtyard were places for visitor viewing. Some of the largest concentrations are at Rainbow Forest, Crystal Forest, and Jasper Forest. The largest is Black Forest.

Who discovered the petrified wood? The first people to find the petrified wood were the hunter and gatherers more than 13,000 years ago. For thousands of years, they knapped petrified wood to make stone tools. The first published account of petrified wood in what would become the park was from the Whipple Expedition of 1853.

Where do the rock shops get their petrified wood? Every piece of petrified wood, rock, and other natural objects found in gift shops come from outside the park boundaries from private lands. The owners of these lands have the right to collect, mine, and sell their wood. The park only protects just over 20% of the original deposit.

Why can’t we take petrified wood from the park? Although it seems as if there is an endless supply of petrified wood here, it is limited. With ,pre than a half-million visitors a year, the park could be picked clean within a few years if collecting were allowed. Most national parks don’t allow their resources to be removed, with few exceptions. Souvenir pieces of petrified wood are readily available in local gift and rock shops. Also check with the Bureau of Land Management for their collecting regulations.

Geology

What are those bare hills? Some of the main landforms in the Painted Desert, the rounded hills are called badlands. Similar hills are found throughout the world. Volcanic ash from 200-million-year-old volcanoes to the west in what is now California, southern Nevada, and western Arizona was carried on the wind to this region and mixed into the sediments that were being deposited during the Late Triassic Period. The ash supplied the silica, which weathers into bentonite clay. Bentonite clay, one of the main components of the badlands, swells up to eight times its original mass as it absorbs moisture, then shrinks and cracks as it dries, causing surface movement that discourages plant growth (some kitty litter is made from bentonite clay).This lack of plant cover renders the sediment susceptible to weathering. Heavy rains of the summer monsoons remove as much as ¼ inch of rock each year from the steep, barren slopes. In addition, water creates small tunnels (called pipes) in the hills, which widen into large gullies through time. This gullying carves the canyons that exist between the mudstone hills, giving the badlands their dissected appearance.Badlands are found around the world, but the Painted Desert features some of the most colorful. The colors vary depending on the minerals present and the conditions during deposition. Red, orange, and pink come from iron oxide, while green, blue, and purple were deposited in low-oxygen environment. Manganese oxide is another mineral that provides colors such as gray, blue, and purple.

Did what happened at Mount St, Helens in 1980 happen here? No, although volcanics were involved in the petrification process here, it was not a cataclysmic event. Trees died from beetle or fungus infestation, lightning strikes, undercutting by water, knocked down by wind, or many other means during 20 million years, whereas the trees at Mount St. Helens were all downed at once by the eruption of the volcano. The multiple volcanoes involved in the petrification process at PEFO were located hundreds of miles away. The ash from these volcanoes was carried by the wind to this location.

What is desert varnish? Desert varnish is properly called rock varnish and is a thin, red-to-black mineral layer that coats exposed rock surfaces in arid regions. It consists of clays and other particles cemented to rock surfaces by manganese, emplaced and oxidized by bacteria living there. It is produced by the physiological activities of microorganisms, which survive by taking manganese out of the environment, then oxidize and emplace it onto rock surfaces. Ancient inhabitants often pecked images into the rock varnish; these incised figures are called petroglyphs.

What is the difference between a mesa, a butte, and a plateau? In general, a mesa is a flat-topped hill or mountain that is wider than it is tall. A butte may or may not be flat-topped, but it is taller than it is wide. A plateau is an extremely wide or expansive mesa.

Puerco Pueblo, Cultural Resources

Who lived here? The culture is known today as Ancestral Puebloan. For a time, they were called “Anasazi”, a Navajo/Diné term meaning “enemy ancestors,” but this confers to a negative connotation and is now avoided. The preferred term within the government, particularly in published text is Ancestral Puebloan. These early inhabitants are believed to be the ancestors of modern-day Hopi and Zuni, who recognize the site as a Traditional Cultural Property.

Where did they get their water? The Puerco River is believed to have been their water source. It contains water underground even when it is not flowing on the surface. There may have been a spring in the southern valley (below the petroglyphs). There are also multiple seeps and springs in the area, and tinajas (Spanish for tanks), the large depressions in the sandstone where water pools up. The amount of rainfall has changed throughout history, similar in the last 8000 years, but during the time the Ancestral Puebloans were here, there were times of more and less rain.

What did they eat? They farmed corn, squash, and beans in the lowlands. They hunted cottontails, jackrabbits, prairie dogs, pronghorn, mule deer, and quail. They domesticated wild turkeys (no longer found in the park but are still in higher elevations nearby). Native plants—such as grass seeds, Mariposa lilies, yucca, and the fruit and pads of the prickly pear cactus—also were important food sources.

What is the difference between petroglyphs and pictographs? Pictographs are images that are painted on the surface of rock using mineral or plant pigments; very few of these are found in the park. Petroglyphs are scratched, pecked, or incised into the surface of the rock using tools. Most of the petroglyphs in the park were painstakingly pecked or incised into the rock varnish, a dark mineral stain on rock surfaces.

What do the petroglyphs mean? There is no way to know exactly what they mean. They are not the symbols of a written language so they cannot be translated. Some of the symbols appear to be solar markers and there is a summer solstice solar marker at Puerco Pueblo. Others include possible connections to clan relationships, migration, hunting, history, and ceremonies. The Hopi and Zuni (along with other Tribes) have meaning and stories connected to petroglyphs and pictographs.

What are the metal markers in the trails? They are maintenance markers. If there is a problem that needs to be fixed along the trail, these markers can be used to identify the location. They are placed about 100 feet apart.

Rainbow Forest Museum and Visitor Center

Are the skeleton exhibits real bones? The skeletons on display are casts of real fossils found in the area. The real fossils are in the museum collection at the north end of the park, University of California at Berkeley, or being studied elsewhere. Fossils are very fragile and could never withstand the stress of being pegged together. Many of the bones in the glass cases are actual fossils, particularly in the Blue Mesa Room.

What is the difference between these reptiles and dinosaurs? Many people think that all ancient, giant reptiles are called dinosaurs. In fact, dinosaurs were a specific group of reptiles that lived primarily in the Mesozoic era, very few of which have been found in PEFO. Within the geologic layers in the park representing the Triassic, paleontologists have found fossils of early dinosaurs, such as Coelophysis and Chindesaurus. These creatures were some of the first of their kind and were the progenitors of better-known species, like T. Rex, Triceratops, and Velociraptor. This is the main reason the Triassic is often known as the Dawn of the Dinosaurs. One thing that made dinosaurs different from other reptiles around the was the structure of their joints.

Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark
More information can be found in the brochure and on the park website.

Can I eat or sleep here? The restaurant closed in 1963 and the rooms were not available since 1947. In the summer of 2017, a modern-day ice cream fountain opened on the ground floor.

What are the cracks from? The inn was built on a vein of bentonite clay, the same material that makes the beautiful badland hills of the Painted Desert. Bentonite expands when wet and contracts when dry which causes the building to shift. The original builder, Herbert Lore, used too much “mud” and too long joints in his masonry walls. Leaks in the roof have also contributed to the walls’ deterioration. Most of his original walls were pulled down during the CCC period and rebuilt. Cracks are still repaired on a regular basis. Damage to the murals must be repaired by a preservation artist during the major rehabilitation in 2004-2006.

Where were the rooms? How many were there? We don’t know for sure how many rooms there were or where they were located during Herbert Lore’s time. They were upstairs in the Trade Room, small cubicles separated by canvas. The six rooms downstairs (on the outside to the west) were added in the 1930s, when the building was remodeled by Lyle Bennett with the labor of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The rooms downstairs were as housing for employees than for guest accommodations after 1947. The casitas across the road were also efficiencies available for let until that time.

What is downstairs? Now referred to as “the old tap room” the downstairs area was actually the front lobby during Herbert Lore’s time and may have served as both the tavern and the guest register. During the Fred Harvey period, it was closed for a time and used as the living area for the Inn’s manager. If you go out the back doors and turn around to face the building, you will be able to see an original wall of petrified wood where the stucco was removed. The door behind the bar goes back into the basement where the behind the scenes activities took place and storage. On the east side, there are stairs going down to what used to be the museum where there were displays for visitors.