Puerco Ruin Trail at Petrified Forest

The Puerco Ruin Trail is a 0.3 mile loop trail to a large ruins site and extensive petroglyph panel. This site is in the middle of Petrified Forest National Park close to the banks of the Puerco River in northern Arizona.

The site is partially excavated and has about 100 rooms built around a large plaza. This site is thought to have been occupied twice, from 1100 to 1200 and again 1250 to 1380 AD. The Puerco Pueblo sits on the cultural border of the Ancestral Pueblo to the north and the Mogollon to the south. The artifacts found here indicate that both groups made contact here.

The terrain here is a short grass prairie and the residents farmed the slopes, growing cotton, corn, squash and beans. This area lacks the Pinon Pines, Junipers, and Gambel Oaks that provided wood and nuts for the sites further north. It is a slightly warmer but dryer climate here.

In early March, the well known sites at Mesa Verde are still surrounded by two of more feet of snow while here it is snow free. The interpretive signs here say the walls are 10 inches sthick and suggest that strong southwest winds were a factor in how the sight was planned.

One of the excavated areas is marked as a kiva. This one is rectangular and doesn’t show many of the design features that the circular Mesa Verde style usually include. Mesa Verde style kivas usually show the ventilation shaft, fire pit and the bench like structure around the edge.

This site is described as being constructed later, perhaps even after the Mesa Verde sites had been abandoned. The Petrified Forest area has enough archaeology interest that it could be a National Park even without the petrified wood.

There is a small cliff face at the far end of the loop where several petroglyph panels are visible. The angle of view is a little awkward and binoculars would be handy to see the many images. The most eye catching image shows a curve billed shore bird holding what looks like a frog.

Nearby the Puerco Ruin Trail is the Newspaper Rock petroglyph overlook. There isn’t any hiking at Newspaper Rock, but there are 650 images arrayed on several rock surfaces. This is also a site where binoculars will be handy. The Newspaper Rock site doesn’t appear to be associated with a ruins site and the location doesn’t appear to be at a canyon junction or any obviously significant location.

Crystal Forest Trail at Petrified Forest

The Crystal Forest Trail is a 0.75 mile paved loop trail in Petrified Forest National Park in northern Arizona.

This area of the park was named for the many brilliantly colored pieces of petrified wood, though most have been removed by early souvenir hunters.

One of the interpretive signs along the trail explains the formation of petrified wood. Approximately 225 million years ago this area was a flood plain littered with fallen trees. Buried under layers of silt, the silica laden waters petrified the wood by encasing the organic material with minerals.

Iron oxides provide red, yellow, and orange colors, while manganese oxides produce blues, purples and blacks. Erosion in recent centuries is exposing these remnants of ancient forests. An interesting point is made that the Mt. Saint Helens volcanic explosion could be an event that starts the process for future petrified wood.

I walked the Crystal Forest Trail on a mild 55 F degree day in early March. This short trail is similar to the nearby Long Logs Trail but has fewer examples of long tree trunks. Another nearby overlook site is the Jasper Forest. From the rim area, tons of petrified wood is visible in the valley below.

The Jasper Forest was heavily mined of petrified wood following the 1882 completion of the Sante Fe railway line. The outrage at the uncontrolled devastation led to the 1906 establishment of the Petrified Forest National Monument.

Blue Mesa Trail at Petrified Forest

The Blue Mesa Trail is a 1 mile paved interpretive loop into a Painted Desert Badlands environment at Petrified Forest National Park in north Arizona.

The badlands are areas of mudstones and siltstones that are easily eroded and sculpted by wind and water. The first part of the trail descends steeply through the sandstone caprock layer that is described as a conglomerate, containing gravels that were deposited by a moving stream.

Small cracks form in the steep slopes that catch water and eventually form pipes that lead below the surface of the ground. The water caught flows out at the base of the hills. At the base of the eroded hills, pieces of petrified wood start to appear. Bentonite clay in the formation swells with water then shrinks and cracks as it dries, creating an elephant skin looking surface.

The badlands areas are rich with fossils and clues to the past. Teeth and bones of long extinct reptiles have been found. The fossils aren’t very apparent from the trail but there are many pieces of petrified wood visible. In some spots the hard petrified wood sits on a pedestal.

The Blue Mesa Trail takes about 0:45 minutes to walk. The climb back up to the parking area at the end of the hike will get your heart pumping. I walked on a pleasant 55 F early March day. This area can get very hot in the summers. The Tawa Point and Rim Trail also gives good views of the Painted Desert and Badlands areas.

Long Logs and Agate House Trail-Petrified Forest

At the south end of the Petrified Forest National Park in northeast Arizona is the Long Logs Trail with the Agate House spur trail. These trails are about two miles round trip.

The story is that 230 million years ago, in a lush tropical conifer forest, some of the trees fell into a river and sunk to the bottom where they were eventually covered with layers of silt and volcanic ash. Gradually, the silica in the covering layers replaced the wood.

The whole region drifted from the tropics to its present location and was uplifted, and erosion is exposing the logs. Now they are highly sought by collectors. The park estimates that they lose a ton per month, carried out in small fragments.

There are commercial places that sell petrified wood outside the park. The parking lots of these places are all nicely lined with stumps of the wood, in contrast to the chaos of nature.

Some of these logs are more than 200 feet long. None of them stand upright as in a forest. They all lay over as in a log jam.

The logs often seem to have been sawed into convenient sized pieces, as if you would want to turn them over and use them for seats. At the end of the side trail to Agate House, there is a ruins site built out of petrified wood more than 700 years ago. Petrified Forest is rich in archaeology. There is also the Puerco Ruins Trail and the Newspaper Rock petroglyph site.

Tawa Point Trail in the Painted Desert-Petrified Forest National Park

The Tawa Point and Rim Trail is at the north end of the Petrified Forest National Park. It is a 1.2 mile round trip along the rim and is also a botany trail, the local plants identified with signs.


Widespread through north Arizona is the Painted Desert, the colorful eroded clays and shales of the Chinle layer. Besides the color and the lack of anything growing on it, the Chinle layer gives up some dinosaur fossils and petrified wood.

There are some whitish layers visible that are volcanic ash and silt. Steps are visible along some of the clay slopes. These are caused when the surface gets wet enough for the material to slump down the slope. Along the surface of the trail there is a stable layer of volcanic agglomerate that provides a richer surface for growing plants.

At the west end of the trail is the historic Painted Desert Inn, built in the 1930s and now a visitor center.

One of the highlights inside the Inn is the large mountain lion petroglyph that is something of a mascot for the park. On the west side of the Painted Desert Inn there is a trail head for visiting the Painted Desert Wilderness area.