Visit the Museum Demonstration Lab at the Painted Desert Visitor Center Complex where you can ask questions and watch them work on fossils from the park.
Bicycle—including ebikes—use is permitted on paved park roads and parking areas open to the public as well as some areas listed in the main text. Be careful along park roads—everyone is looking at the view!
Collect your cancellation stamp!
2-10 Minutes
Explore this ancient log jam at the base of purple and gray badlands along a paved half-mile loop.
60-120 Minutes
Enjoy the tranquility of the grassland as the paved trail leads you to scenic Tawa Point. The 1.2-mile one way Tawa Trail is a perfect place to stretch your legs after a long road trip.
30 Minutes
Bring your own horse and take a ride into the backcountry.
This unpaved trail winds 1-mile round trip through the rim woodland, a place for chance encounters of many species of plants and animals and spectacular views of the Painted Desert.
20-120 Minutes
The 3/4 -mile paved Puerco Pueblo Trail features the remnants of a hundred room masonry pueblo.
10-60 Minutes
Walk Crystal Forest Trail for one of the best opportunities to experience the petrified wood deposits as it loops through rolling gray and purple badlands.
20-120 Minutes
This 1-mile alternately paved and gravel trail loop offers the unique experience of hiking among banded badland hills of bentonite clay as well as petrified wood.
30-120 Minutes
Explore the paleontology exhibits at Rainbow Forest Museum.
30-60 Minutes
As long as you both follow the BARK Ranger rules, you can take your leashed dog, cat, or other pet almost everywhere you can go in the park.
Go geocaching. There are multiple caches in the park including traditional and virtual.
60 Minutes
Watching wildlife is a seasonal activity, but just in that the species to watch change, particularly in birdwatching.
5-120 Minutes
Take a self-guided tour of Giant Logs, one of the highest concentration of large, colorful petrified logs.
30-60 Minutes