Exploring Petrified Forest and Death Valley – With Very Few Trails!

Petrified wood in the Jasper Forest, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

I recently returned from an amazing trek across the country! We drove nearly 6,000 miles, hiked around 160 miles, and saw some truly amazing scenery both by foot and by van. Of course, we also slept under brilliant stars, watched sunrises and sunsets, climbed (literally!) canyons, learned local history, chased waterfalls, made new friends, and experienced a few unplanned adventures (mostly positive, thankfully!) I’d like to share a few pictures and some of those adventures with you in this post.

Hiking to the historic Clam Beds, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

We managed to visit only four parks on this trip, and all of them were national parks – Petrified Forest, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, and Canyonlands. We also spent the night in three national monuments – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon, Navajo, and Bear Ears. For the most part, the weather was reasonable, though we had a few cloudy days, outran a 12-inch-predicted snowstorm south of Grand Canyon, found ourselves pelted with snow in Death Valley, and finally made our way home because it was just too hot to want to hike. Most interesting to me, though, was the waves of people from various states on spring break. That’s not something I’ve had to experience in the fall, so I wasn’t thinking about such things when I planned a trip in March. Oh well – we managed to avoid 90% of the crowds and had a great time!

Eye of the Needle Arch in Echo Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California

Speaking of avoiding crowds, I’m not sure I’ve ever taken a trip where we spent so little time on established trails. It became a joke, “So Anne, are we going to have a trail today?!?” We ended up exploring a total of 5 official trails, 4 hikes with official trails for part of the distance, and a whopping 20 off-trail, old road+off-trail, or social trail+off-trail hikes! (Do you really want to go hiking with me now?!?)

Petrified Forest National Park

We started our adventures in Petrified Forest National Park. I’d hiked about half of the trails in the park back in 2023, and I wanted to finish up the few that were left to experience on this trip. The park has several off-trail hikes – they hand you a printout and you can follow that, landmarks, and GPS coordinates to the route’s destination. The Wilderness Route and Blue Forest had both worked so well last time that it only seemed right to check out the rest of the off-trail routes on this visit. I went for the least interesting first and hiked out to Dead Horse Point…

Then did a sunset hike out to Martha’s Butte. (Which happens to be one of two treks in the park that is on AllTrails but not officially recognized by the NPS. The other is Pilot Rock, which travels part of the Wilderness Route out to the park’s high point – 17 miles sounded like way too much fun, so I didn’t hike that one.) The butte is surrounded by boulders with some really neat rock art.

A little bit of the rock art below Martha's Butte in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona — A little bit of the rock art below Martha’s Butte

We got up the next morning and headed out toward First Forest Point. It was my second-favorite of the routes we did on this trip. Wandering through stash after stash of petrified wood and finally ending up on top of a mesa with a great view was fun!

Petrified wood near First Forest Point, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona — Petrified wood near First Forest Point

In the afternoon, we took the Jasper Forest Route. It’s actually an old road, so it’s easy to follow. The road once went to Eagle Nest Rock, a really neat rock formation. Sadly, it eroded away and fell in the 1940s, so the road was allowed to fall into disrepair, but the printout from the visitor center helps you find about a dozen old culverts that once carried rainwater under the road.

One of the (more intact) culverts along the Jasper Forest Route, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona — One of the (more intact) culverts along the Jasper Forest Route

I’ve always enjoyed sunset among the petrified wood, so off we went to see Agate House and the Long Logs. While I still think the Crystal Forest is nicer, this is a really neat area, too.

Agate House in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona — Agate House

Our final day in Petrified Forest was spent hiking the very long (but very neat!) Clam Beds and Red Basin Route. It had some significant wayfinding, but it was very much worth the effort and occasional raindrops!

Badlands beyond Red Basin in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona — Badlands beyond Red Basin

Our plan from here was to go over to Grand Canyon. However, GoogleMaps dutifully informed us of an impending winter storm. On further investigation, we found that the Grand Canyon was slated to receive 12 inches of snow! So instead of getting stuck in a snowdrift, we headed over to Death Valley National Park where we would spend the majority of the rest of the trip.

Death Valley: The Funeral and Grapevine Mountains

Back in 2023, we took our second unplanned trip to Death Valley after successfully completing the South Kaibab Trail in Grand Canyon. Our very last adventure before heading home was to drive the Echo Canyon Road up to the Inyo Mine. I really wanted to go further, all the way up Echo Canyon, but we simply didn’t have time for that. Well, our very first adventure in Death Valley in 2025 was to once again drive up Echo Canyon… all of the way to the end!

Echo Canyon Road above Echo Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California — Echo Canyon Road above Echo Canyon

Our goal in driving the Echo Canyon Road was to hike up the rest of Echo Canyon (all of the way through the Funeral Mountains) to the Echo Canyon Overlook. This name is a misnomer since you’re on a clifftop overlooking the Amargosa Valley. But it was a great hike with a wonderful view and one I’d do again if I was in the area.

Looking down into the Amargosa Valley from the Echo Canyon Overlook, Death Valley National Park, California — Looking down into the Amargosa Valley from the Echo Canyon Overlook

After a quick stop the next day at Devils Cornfield…

Devils Cornfield in Death Valley National Park, California — Devils Cornfield

…and another at the Historic Stovepipe Well…

The Historic Stovepipe Well, Death Valley National Park, California — The Historic Stovepipe Well

…we hiked up Lower Monarch Canyon to the pretty waterfall.

Monarch Canyon Waterfall in Lower Monarch Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California — Monarch Canyon Waterfall

In the evening, we hiked down Upper Monarch Canyon. It got dark before we could find the top of the waterfall, but not before we had found an old mine area. It would have been a pretty hike if we hadn’t had to use flashlights to get back (but now I know that both my phone and GPS have flashlight functions that don’t eat battery power too badly).

The old machinery in Upper Monarch Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California — The old machinery in Upper Monarch Canyon

One of the hikes I was really looking forward to exploring was the Cauldron. It started out on the Fall Canyon Trail, but pretty quickly we took to a route I’d figured off the internet. The Cauldron was a really fun maze of slot canyons and rock formations.

Hiking up the main canyon in The Cauldron, Death Valley National Park, California — Hiking up the main canyon in The Cauldron

While we were in the area, I jogged down to Little Arches Canyon…

One of the Little Arches in Little Arches Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California — One of the Little Arches

…then I climbed back up to Palmer Canyon and hiked to the end of the second narrows.

The one major dryfall in Palmer Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California — The one major dryfall in Palmer Canyon

This pretty much marked the dividing line of the trip for us (for one thing, the weather improved dramatically after this in terms of sunshine), so I’ll continue talking about it in the next post… including how we drove out to the Racetrack to see the famous Sailing Stones!

A petrified log with a hole through the middle on the way to First Forest Point, Petrified Forest National Park, California — A petrified log with a hole through the middle on the way to First Forest Point

Scenic Hikes in the Western National Parks!

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