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Petroglyphs of the Painted Desert

Petrified Forest National Park | Alternate Plans: Back on the Four Corners Circuit
Tuesday – Wednesday, May 24-25, 2022

After our half-day Jeep tour in Canyon del Muerto on Monday, it was time to spend a pair of days hiking in the backcountry of Petrified Forest National Park, which has quickly become one of our favorite places to explore over the past couple of years. Since the park does not open until 8:00am, we were able to sleep in a little later this morning before leaving Holbrook and driving over to the entrance. Once we arrived, the first thing we did was stop in at the temporary Painted Desert Visitor Center and grabbed a backpacking wilderness permit, since it’s a great place to spend the night. Then we headed off in search of petroglyphs for the rest of the morning and early afternoon, and we found a lot!

We made a quick stop at the Historic Route 66 Exhibit as we entered the park since we had never stopped here before.

Get Your Kicks

Old Car

Then we continued on and started our hike into the wilderness of the Painted Desert.

Into the Painted Desert

Wash Wandering

After a couple miles of hiking we started finding a few scattered petroglyphs on boulders.

Small Panel

Sheep & Hand

Low Petroglyphs

Those smaller petroglyph sites soon turned into much larger panels…

Top of the Boulders

Big Foot Rock

Foot & Sun

Hand Rock

Old Designs

Snake Rock

Backside of the Boulder

Slab Petroglyphs

It was obvious that many of the large boulders with petroglyphs had shifted since the images were first carved, and there were a couple, like this one, that had broken into two or more pieces.

Broken Boulder

Sheep & Dots Panel. Although we saw a lot of cool panels today, I think this one was my favorite.

Sheep & Dots Panel

Sheep & Dots

Whatchamacallit

This panel seems much older than the rest since the images are repatinated.

Old Petroglyphs

Narrow Boulder

Black Boulder Top

There were some potsherds around, but there didn’t seem to be as many as we have found in other parts of the park.

Potsherds

Busy Boulder

This boulder has broken into three pieces since the images were created.

Broken Into Three

Big Sheep Boulder

Top Designs

Checkered

Antenna Arms

Staff & Tracks

It looks like this large boulder has fallen and spun around since the images appear to be upside down.

Upside-Down Boulder

Here’s a right-side up photo of the main figure.

Right Side Up

Although it got a bit warm out while we were searching for petroglyphs, it was also pretty windy which helped it feel a bit cooler than it actually was. After scrambling around boulders for a couple of hours we returned to the Jeep and then drove back to the Painted Desert Community Complex for an early dinner at the café. I was very surprised at how uncrowded this park was just a few short days before the Memorial Day weekend and was pretty happy about that since I was expecting this place to be packed! After I ate my burger we headed over to the Painted Desert Inn and got our backpacks ready for our easy overnighter into the wilderness. We left shorty before 4:30pm because that’s what time our permit said we had to be on the trail by.

Walking by the Painted Desert Inn.

Painted Desert Inn

Descending the trail back into the Painted Desert.

Painted Desert Descent

We briefly stopped at a petroglyph panel along the way, but didn’t stay long since I planned to return at sunrise.

Flatiron Petroglyphs

After crossing Lithodendron Wash we found a place to set up camp that was pretty sheltered from the wind, though we were still hoping that the wind would die down around sunset like the weather forecast stated, but they’ve been wrong many times before.

Once our camp was set up we did a little more exploring before sunset and found Gregory’s Stump.

Gregory's Stump

Gregory’s Stump was first documented by Geologist Herbert E. Gregory in a 1917 USGS publication titled “Geology of the Navajo Country,” and was later determined by park naturalists to not represent a true standing tree. Here is a photo of the ‘stump’ from the 1917 report. Surprisingly, it looks almost exactly the same today!

Petrified Tree, 1917

We found plenty of other large petrified logs in the surrounding Black Forest.

Petrified Logs

We wandered over to the edge of the mesa for a view over our sheltered campsite below.

Campsite Below

Diane headed back down to camp while I wandered over to Angels Garden for a little bit.

Exploring Angels Garden

I returned to camp shortly before sunset and took a few photos until the light was gone. The wind died down and it was a very pleasant evening.

Badlands Evening  Exploring

Camp Guardian

Camp Guardian

Painted Desert Campsite

Painted Desert Campsite

Golden Hour View

Golden Hour View

North Wilderness Peak

North Wilderness Peak

Lithodendron Wash at Dusk

Lithodendron Wash at Dusk

Since the wind died down with the sunset and it was a calm and clear night, we both slept very well under the bright stars. It was perfect camping weather! I woke up early on Wednesday morning and walked back over to the Flatiron Petroglyph Panel to watch the sunrise.

Good Morning!

Good Morning

Flatiron Rock Sunrise

Flatiron Rock Sunrise

Then I did a little more exploring on my way back to camp.

Morning Exploring

We took our time packing up and then hiked back up to my Jeep at the trailhead, leaving the wilderness behind. Until next time!

Out of the Wilderness

We spent the rest of the morning searching for more petroglyphs, and we found quite a few!

Zoomorph Panel

Bird Panel

Hands Up

Look closely at this panel and you can see the older archaic Glen Canyon Style petroglyphs under the newer ones.

Archaic Petroglyphs

Interesting Designs

The Logo

Flute Player

Diane spotted this nice panel of sheep petroglyphs above us.

Line of Sheep

Two walls, two petroglyph panels.

Two Panels

Here’s a closer look at the one in the background of the previous photo.

Back Panel

Pointed Spiral Panel

Petroglyphs in the Corner

Boulder Ruin Panel

This anthropomorph with only one leg was my favorite find of the day. Very unusual!

One Leg

Foot & Spiral Design

Before leaving the park we ate lunch and then visited Keystone Arch.

Keystone Arch

Below Keystone Arch

While we were hiking around Keystone Arch the temperature was getting pretty warm out and the gnats were out in full force since there wasn’t any wind to keep them at bay, so we decided to call it a day and head up to higher elevations at the edge of the Mogollon Rim in Show Low and Pinetop. I had hoped we could go on a couple short hikes around Show Low in the afternoon, but everything was crazy busy and access to some of the trails were closed off by recent developments, so we decided to retire to our hotel room early instead.

>> Petroglyphs of the Painted Desert Photo Gallery

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