Petrified Forest National Park

The name, Petrified Forest National Park, is kind of misleading because there is no forest. There was a forest at one time, then many things happened over the millennia, that caused the trees to fall and absorb the silica from the water that became part of the trees' cellular structure which then hardened into rock over time. So what you see is many, many fallen trees and tree parts that are lying on the desert floor where they fell many eons ago. Which is actually pretty cool. And you've got to give it to the park systems marketing people who came up with the name for the park and for the names of the side trips within the park such as Giant Logs and Crystal Forest. We stopped at both of those as well as the Painted Desert Inn at the other end of the park. The Inn was an actual hotel, constructed in the early 1900s, in the adobe style that was also the inspiration for the Bette Davis movie: The Petrified Forest. Now it's a museum with magnificent views of the Painted Desert portion of the park. And Braddock enjoyed the walk, too!

Campground Review

In between our visits to the Meteor Crater and Petrified Forest National Park, we stayed the night at the KOA in Holbrook, Arizona. We were a little hesitant after looking at the street view on Google Maps. Sketchy and dodgy were the words that came to mind. But there were really no other choices so we booked it and it turned out to be just fine, got our laundry caught up and a good night's sleep.

Next: two and half days travel time back home to South Carolina...whew, what a trip! We had a great time and if you are planning your RV trip to any of these parks, we hope we've been able to provide a little help. Happy trails!