The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

It is also at the southern tip of the Painted Desert of Arizona, a beautiful part of the country. Winslow is also just west of Holbrook Arizona and the Petrified Forest National Park.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

Location is 2-3 blocks right off of old Route 66, where are there hundreds of non-chain hotels, most of which closed as larger Interstate Highways were built.

Cold breakfast buffet was enough to get us on the road.

If you plan to continue driving east on I-40 toward Albuquerque after leaving the park, I recommend that you use SR 180 and the South Entrance to the park, to avoid back-tracking back to Holbrook to get on I-40.

There is a park entry fee of $10 per car, unless you bought a $50 pass for unlimited use in all National Parks.

A single road (10-15 miles) goes through the park from SR 180 to I-40, there are several stopping points, overlooks, and a Visitors Center (recommended).

Along the way, there are easy trails that provide views of fossilized wood/trees that have slowly turned to stone over 200 Million years.

Do not remove any of the petrified wood from the park. The National Park Service is very serious about that.

There is a large gift shop that is next to an Information Center with lots a fossils, and even a couple of small dinosaur skeletons.

This is said to be one of the largest concentrations of Petrified Wood in the world.

There are more spectacular National Parks, but as I thought about the 200 million years it took to produce these fossils, I gained appreciation for the park.

Although Route 66 no longer appears on maps, many nostalgic people continue to long for the golden age Route 66 represented.

Along with the dozens of hotels, gas stations, and other businesses that died as new highways were built, there are gift shops and other businesses that work to keep the Route 66 legacy alive with souvenirs and memorabilia.

Many non-chain hotels (some look pretty scary) and other businesses remain and cater to the memory and tradition of this timeline of history.

Arizona is said to have the longest remaining stretch of Route 66.

I knew that the rock group The Eagles immoralized this town in one of their songs a long time ago, but I was surprised at how this town treats it like their claim to fame. They have billboards that mention "well I'm standin on the corner in Winslow, Arizona....," and they even have a park called "Standin on the Corner."

I didn't check it out, but there are lots of Railroad memorabilia places.

We basically stopped to eat at Denny's (which was so-so).

The painted desert gets its name from the distinctive different brown, pink, and white colors that the layers of rock contrast from the different time periods they became covered in. It appears that someone could have taken a paint brush and hand-painted the colors.

This is a pretty part of the country, but I preferred the scenery farther north in south Utah.