MIKE AND JESS' TRAVEL DIARY
Painted Desert and Petrified Forest Trip
APril 2022
Mike and I intially had planned to visit the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest Park in March 2020. However, COVID was starting to spread quicker than expected and we had to quickly cancel our hotel reservation. They gave us a gift certificate of the total, so we re-booked a couple years later.
We stayed in Winslow, AZ at the La Posada Inn for two nights and drove to the National Park both days.
Winslow is nothing to visit on it’s own and we were disappointed with the hotel. The room was smaller than expected, the “romantic” whirlpool tub was a few inches from the toilet (we don’t use public tubs anyways, but certainly not romantic if we wanted to) and the restaurant food at the Turquoise Room was really bad, especially for the price tag. The best food we had during our stay was at a cheap family pizza place down the road.
The National Forest, however, far exceeded expectations. We were often alone on the trails and had incredible views. We took the puppies on this trip with us, and they were allowed on all the trails and paths. Everything was maintained beautifully and well-marked.
We started off doing the popular trails and paths like the Painted Mesa Rim and the Blue Mesa Trailhead.
As we drove through the park’s windy road, we started to see trails without big signs that weren’t on the trail map pamphlet given at the entrance. However, the trails had tiny pull offs that were clearly meant for the trail. We decided to try one out to see what we were missing by hitting the big stops. It ended up being the best trail we walked on! Instead of seeing the blue and white striped hills from afar, we were walking on them, snaking through the hilly valley. It was so great.
The Petrified Forest area was just as cool. The petrified wood chunks, and sometimes whole downed tree trunks, were so colorful and unique.
We, and the pups, ended up having a really great time in the park on both days!
