Day 5 - Thursday, September 30 - Winslow and Petrified Forest, Arizona

The original hike had been planned for five days which would have had us hiking out today. Now with the shorter trip this was a free day. Michael has been hooked on National Parks since his first visit to Arizona and the Grand Canyon back in 2008 and he caught the travel bug from his uncle Bob. The Grand Canyon had been his first and only National Park and he was eager to add another to the list. When he discovered Petrified Forest National Park was in northern Arizona as well he asked how far it was away and if it would be possible to make a visit since we had no other plans for the day. I was happy to oblige. Max had never been there either so it would be something new and different for him as well.

We had an early breakfast in Flagstaff and then headed east on I-40 towards Holbrook, Arizona and Pertrifed Forest. Since Winslow was on the way I asked if they would like to make a brief stop at the "Standin' on the Corner" site there. We took some photos and visited the gift shop there and then continued east on I-40.

We entered Petrified Forest National Park from the southern entrance off of US-180 and followed the park road north. We visited Rainbow Forest, Crystal Forest and the Agate Bridge. We had a short little hike at Blue Mesa where it started to rain on us. Another stop at Newspaper Rock and then more petroglyphs at Puerco Pueblo. Continuing north from there we crossed over I-40 and stopped at the site of the old Route 66 crossing and the rusted 1932 Studebaker there that marks the spot. We stopped at the Painted Desert overlook and then at the Painted Desert Inn. I was disappointed that the inn was not open as I had been looking forward to seeing the large mountain lion petroglyph that they had there. I was happy to see they had a replica of the petroglyph at the Painted Desert visitor center near the northern entrance. After a short stop at the gift we hopped back on I-40 and headed back west to Flagstaff.