This is a curious location where once stood 200 ft tall trees with lush vegetation and animal life is today a very arid desert. Scientists believe that about 200 million years ago these trees would fall down and float down a great river and get stuck in great logjams and buried under tons of silt and sand. The silt blocked out the air required for the normal decay of wood and instead introduced silica and other minerals that caused the wood to crystalize. Eventually the silt was washed away and today we have a landscape littered with rock hard timber.

In the late 1800's souvenir hunters carried off tons of the rainbow colored logs. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt designated this area a national monument. In 1932 the painted desert and blue mesa regions were added. In 1962 an act of congress gave the region the coveted national park designation.

Please note that Northern Arizona is heavily visited in the summer (May-August) which makes getting reservations difficult. The best time to visit is March / April / September / Octoboer when there is beautiful weather and less competition for reservations. The nearest lodging is in Holbrook.

As you follow the main park road, look for scenic overviews of the Painted Desert. This region provides a sharp contrast of bright color caused by years of erosion on several different layers of rock. Most noticeable are several different hues of red.