Painted Desert

The Painted Desert, located within Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona, is a striking landscape of colorful, layered mesas and hills. Spanning about 346 square miles, the park features semi-desert shrub steppe alongside vividly eroded badlands. It is especially renowned for its fossils—most notably petrified wood from fallen trees that lived during the Late Triassic Epoch, around 225 million years ago.

Puerco Pueblo

The earliest known human inhabitants of Petrified Forest National Park arrived around 13,000 years ago during the Clovis culture period. These early peoples are considered the ancestors of many modern Native Americans.  By about 2,500 years ago, Ancestral Puebloans began farming corn and living in subterranean pit houses in the region. Around 1,000 years ago, their communities evolved to include above-ground masonry homes known as pueblos, marking a significant development in architecture and social organization.

Blue Mesa 

This colorful landscape was formed between about 225 and 223 million years ago, during the Late Triassic Period.  Back then, this area was a low-lying floodplain crossed by rivers flowing from distant highlands. 

A nice 1 mile hike through Blue Mesa is a great way to 

experience those colorful badlands up close.

Crystal Forest

One of the largest concentrations of petrified logs in the park 

Rainbow Forest 

The Rainbow Forest  museum features a nice collection of fossils along with clear, instructive displays that help bring the park’s ancient past to life. 

Phytosaurs Are the most commonly found vertebrate fossil

in the Petrified Forest.

A Metoposaur's, an amphibian, body part

Royal fern leaf

Therapsids were large reptiles that possessed many 

mammalian characteristics. They were herbivores.

Rauiisuchids ranked as the top terrestrial predator

of the late Triassic.

Behind the museum is an impressive collection of some of the 

largest petrified logs in the park.

Museum of Northern Arizona

The Museum of Northern Arizona offers a strong introduction to the Colorado Plateau, featuring extensive Indigenous artifacts that highlight the cultures and traditions of its early inhabitants. Alongside this, its natural history collections—ranging from fossils and geology to native plants and wildlife—help tell the story of how people and the environment have been closely connected across the region for centuries. 

Giant Amphibian Skull

What big teeth you have

Yavapai-Apache

Zuni

Hopi

Dine (Navajo)

Walnut Canyon National Monument

 The Sinagua were active traders whose influence reached far beyond northern Arizona, extending to the Gulf of Mexico and even into Central America. They built their homes tucked beneath limestone ledges deep within the 350-foot canyon about 1125 and 1250.  These cliff dwellings were modest in size but well-designed—large enough for cooking, sleeping, and daily life. The Sinagua farmed along the canyon rim, growing staples like beans, squash, and corn. Their diet was supplemented by wild plants such as nuts and berries, as well as game like deer and bighorn sheep.  Around 1250 AD, the Sinagua mysteriously left Walnut Canyon. While no single explanation is certain, theories include drought, resource depletion, or migration to join other nearby cultures.

Imagine climbing to the rim to obtain your food and descending

 into the canyon for water.

Think about children running around and playing. 

How dangerous was that

Not everyone lived down in the canyon

Pit house

Pit house construction 

Wupatki National Monument

 One of many settlement sites scattered throughout Wupatki National Monument near Flagstaff, this structure was built by the Ancient Pueblo people—more specifically, the c.  The dwelling’s walls were carefully constructed from thin, flat blocks of local Moenkopi sandstone, giving it both strength and a distinctive layered appearance. The name “Wupatki,” meaning “Long Cut House” in the Hopi language, reflects the structure’s unique form.  A major population influx began soon after the eruption of Sunset Crater Volcano in the late 11th century (around 1040–1100). The volcanic ash that blanketed the region actually improved agricultural conditions, helping the soil retain moisture in this otherwise arid landscape.  By 1182, Wupatki Pueblo was home to an estimated 85 to 100 people. However, by 1225, the site was permanently abandoned—leaving behind the remarkable ruins that still tell the story of adaptation, community, and resilience in a challenging environment.

The door is approximately 4 feet high, a tight fit.

Sinagua pottery 

The Sinagua were part of an extensive trade network that stretched far beyond what we think of as the “desert Southwest.”  They had access to coastal materials—especially seashells—through trade routes that likely connected them to groups along the Pacific coast and possibly even the Gulf of California.