The Painted Desert is a United States desert of badlands in the Four Corners area, running from near the east end of Grand Canyon National Park and southeast into Petrified Forest National Park. It is most easily accessed from the north portion of Petrified Forest National Park. The Painted Desert is known for its brilliant and varied colors: these include the more common red rock, but also shades of lavender.
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The Painted Desert, Petrified Forest National Park
The gray and red colored bands across the landform are typical of most geologic features in the Painted Desert.
Painted Desert with logs of petrified wood, Petrified Forest National Park
Petrified Forest National Park
Petrified Forest National Park is an American national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the park covers about 346 square miles, encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The park's headquarters is about 26 miles (42 km) east of Holbrook along Interstate 40 (I-40), which parallels the BNSF Railway's Southern Transcon, the Puerco River, and historic U.S. Route 66, all crossing the park roughly east–west. The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962. The park received 644,922 recreational visitors in 2018.
The Tepees
Aerial view looking south from the Navajo Reservation (foreground) across the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest National Park, and Adamana, Arizona
Painted Desert badlands as seen from the rim at Tawa Point
Painted desert and petrified logs seen from Blue Mesa
