Annie's Van-Ventures: Petrified Forest

From Holbrook, I headed to the southern end of the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. The Petrified Forest is in the southern end of the park and the Painted Desert is in the northern end. If I had it to do again, I'd enter the Painted Desert at the northern tip right off Hightway 40/Route 66, but for some reason, the guidebook didn't say that was possible and I ended up driving the full length of the park 3 times.

I parked at the lower end, right outside the park, in a small FREE Crystal Forest Shop campground run by tourist shop there. The lady there was nice, and said as long as I had a toilet, I could park there free for up to 10 days.

HOWEVER, for some weird reason (people without toilets?) the FLIES were CRAZY! I'm talking 50 flies if I opened my van door for 2 minutes. I wasn't too happy about staying there, honestly, due to the flies. Otherwise, it would have been fine and I bet the stars would have been magnificent that night!

I left my ice chest and chair in my camping spot, the one under the big tree she suggested that had shade all day, and headed up the 20-something mile road to see the Petrified Forest, then the Painted Desert at the other end. Once I got up at the northern end of the park, I saw the sign that told me I could get back on Hwy 40 there!

I looked at the map and it was closer than going all the way around. If I'd not left my ice chest and chair, I could have just hopped onto the highway there, but the chair is special to me, so I drove back down to retrieve it. Then I drove back UP and stopped at the points I'd passed before due to the number of tourists in the parking lots. The park is self-guided, with pull-outs at the important points. It was pretty busy, so I'd passed some points, and was happy to have the opportunity to stop and see the ones I'd missed.