Petrified Forest National Park
Pristine sky, where the Milky Way casts shadows on the ground.
Petrified Forest sits in the high desert of northeastern Arizona with some of the darkest skies of any national park in the country. The flat, open terrain of the Painted Desert means unobstructed horizon views in every direction, and the Bortle 1 designation puts it among the darkest certified sites in the Southwest. The landscape of ancient fossilized logs and banded badlands takes on a completely different character under a full Milky Way.
What's here
On the map
What to bring
Our picks for a good night under the stars.
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Nearby in Arizona
Chiricahua National Monument
Isolated sky island with rock pinnacle foregrounds in southeastern Arizona.
Grand Canyon National Park
Gold Tier dark sky park where the canyon drops away into darkness below you.
Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument
One of the country's most remote Dark Sky Sanctuaries on the Arizona Strip.