The Painted Desert, banded earth.

Field guide ◆ Painted Desert

Plan the trip.

The Painted Desert runs 160 miles from the Grand Canyon's east end to Petrified Forest National Park in northeast Arizona — a stretch of badlands where 200 million years of sediment exposed in horizontal bands of red, orange, purple, and blue. Petrified Forest is the only national park unit anchored by it, and it preserves both the painted hills and 200-million-year-old fossilized trees.

For a focused day: enter Petrified Forest National Park from Holbrook (north entrance), drive the 28-mile road end to end. Walk Blue Mesa (1 mile loop through the most colorful banded hills). Stop at Newspaper Rock (petroglyphs). End at Crystal Forest where the petrified logs are scattered like a forest.

Pair with Grand Canyon (3 hours west) or Sedona. Best window: October to April. Summer is hot and the colors look better in slanting low-angle light, so plan for early morning or late afternoon.