The expanse of the Painted Desert is plainly viewable from the overlook, easily accessible behind the Painted Desert Inn via a short path from the parking lot.

This 1-mile loop trail is a paved path through the Blue Mesa badlands. Though rated as easy, there is an initial descent from the parking lot (and ascent as you finish) that may be difficult for those with limited mobility. A true highlight of the park, though, as it immerses visitors in a totally alien landscape.

This 100-ft long petrified log sits on top of a small chasm, forming a bridge. When the park opened, visitors could stand on top of it! Today, the log is off-limits and supported by concrete, but this is a quick, easy stop for an impressively long piece of petrified wood.

The Ancestral Puebloans built this pueblo with more than 100 rooms over 700 years ago. The ruins are accessible along an easy paved path, which also passes some easily-spotted petroglyphs left by the original inhabitants.

The 1-mile Blue Mesa trail is the most accessible way to immerse yourself in the otherworldly badlands of the Blue Mesa. There is a steep descent, but the trail is paved and mostly flat once you reach the bottom. An additional lookout about 1,000 feet further down the road from the trailhead allows visitors who aren't up for a hike to gaze into the Blue Mesa and the petrified wood deposit below.

Ask rangers questions about the park, grab detailed maps for 'off the beaten path' trails, and browse the gift shop at the park's northern entrance visitor center. Grab lunch at the Painted Desert Diner, the only place to eat a meal in the park. The adjacent gas station is the only gas available in the park.

Another fabulous view of the Painted Desert, this stop is also home to the Painted Desert Inn, a Route 66 hotel featuring interior design work by Mary Jane Colter and murals by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie. You can also take the easy Painted Desert Rim Trail from the parking lot to the nearby Tawa Point. The hike is one mile, round trip.

The terrain in Petrified Forest transitions to an alien landscape of gray and blue badlands. Within this landscape are The Tepees, a set of conical, banded hills that resemble tepees. The south pullout for The Tepees is the trailhead for the Blue Forest Trail, moderately difficult and 3 miles out and back through stunningly spartan badlands. This is one of the park's unmaintained 'off the beaten path' trails. Make sure to grab a map with pictures from the visitor center! If you decide to hike, then expect to spend more than an hour here. There are some narrow sections and steep drop-offs as you climb higher, and the trail may be slippery when wet.

An overlook sits over a desert plain with a dense petrified wood deposit below. Want a closer look? Another 'off the beaten path' trail leads from the right of the parking lot down to the deposit following a well-worn path to the wash. Then it's just you and the petrified wood - a truly astonishing and bizarre landscape.

This paved loop is under a mile long, making this one of the most accessible places to walk among petrified wood in the park. The path is wheelchair and stroller friendly, though there is some minor up and down as you go.

The Rainbow Forest Museum highlights the park's fossil discoveries from the Triassic Period. You can also shop for petrified wood and other gifts at the shop across the street. Behind the Rainbow Forest Museum is the entrance to the Giant Logs Trail, a half-mile unpaved loop that passes some of the largest petrified wood in the park. Across the bridge from all of this is the trailhead to the Long Logs and Agate House trails, a combined 2.6 miles round trip. Long Logs takes hikers to another petrified wood deposit with a dramatic badlands backdrop. Agate House leads to a reconstruction of a pueblo built with petrified wood.