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Petrified Forest National Park

@petrifiedforestnps

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Official Instagram account of Petrified Forest National Park. Be civil and family friendly. No posting business opportunities or solicitations.

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The park has been experiencing some much-needed rain this week and we want to clarify with our visitors that rainy days are GREAT days to visit! Of course, outdoor opportunities can be more challenging and limiting with the weather, but the good news is we strive to make our scenic drive the best it can be. For example, with a little bit of luck, you may just see a color blasting rainbow arching over the Blue Mesa trail from the comfort of our vehicle lookout points! Precipitation saturates the colors in both the Painted Desert badlands and the vibrant petrified wood. Don't believe me? Come see for yourself! (LH) Rainbow stretches overtop Blue Mesa badlands with a trail circling below by @petrifiedforestnps

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a year ago

Hear the Painted Desert Inn Come to Life!
When the Painted Desert Inn welcomed travelers coming off Route 66, the halls echoed with jazz, swing, and classic western tunes. This playlist recreates that atmosphere with 45 tracks from the era. Scan the QR codes, or click to listen on Apple Music or Spotify, to experience the music that helped make this National Historic Landmark a desert oasis. (AV)

https://music.apple.com/.../painted.../pl.u-6mo4l2WCBP3602p

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7pB1y38JINqTYsWFDcO1BT?si=C2lWHUvoQH-iRMZbwvVM7Q&pi=ZZSZGKzPQhW8y&nd=1&dlsi=453b1e7909f64745&fbclid=IwY2xjawNI7xxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE4SnlLNGR6dVlSSnZ5ODJjAR6CDakxMc9N9bt6QtC_JB3N8SvX9jIbK3HDyef4lPN4wQNGhEMZUFmQ1FNVig_aem_mqm30BsN1iTovIS062iHUg by @petrifiedforestnps

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a year ago

WE ARE MOVING… well, kinda!
The Painted Desert Visitor Center will be closing in preparation for, and during, a long awaited construction project that will be rehabilitating the main building. Our rangers and the services they provide will be shifted to the Painted Desert Inn, 2 miles north from the Painted Desert Visitor Center on our Main Park Rd. Painted Desert Inn is an amazing building with a beautiful history that is well outlined in the museum exhibits throughout, as well as the unique gift stores operated by our partner Petrified Forest Museum Association on the main floor, and ExplorUS downstairs with an ice cream parlor!

Good news is that the gift store and restaurant before the entrance station will remain open during the project! Directly off I-40 exit 311, open 8am-5pm.

Things will be a little different for a while until the project is complete, so please bear with us in the meantime. We are hoping to reopen the Painted Desert Visitor Center in 2027! (LH) by @petrifiedforestnps

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a year ago

Our paleontology crew has been excavating a rauisuchid skull in the Painted Desert for a month. Rauisuchids like Postosuchus were the dominant terrestrial predators of the Triassic Period and their fossils are relatively rare. Today, archaeology, biology, administration, museum, and maintenance staff helped retrieve the 500 lb. field jacket and bring it to the lab. #TriassicPark #FossilFriday #Postosuchus (am) taken in Petrified Forest National Park by @petrifiedforestnps

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a year ago

Earlier this summer we helped a colleague from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History collect the back end of a phytosaur from a very remote section of the Painted Desert. Dedicated staff and volunteers in their fossil lab began work on the specimen this week. If you’re in Washington, D.C. be sure to check out the Fossilab and see the fossils be expertly removed from the surrounding rock. #FossilFriday #triassicpark #phytosaurbuttsdriveusnuts (am) taken in Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History by @petrifiedforestnps

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a year ago

This new star, also known as a nova, V462 Lupi, is an unexpected surprise in our dark sky! Visitors who are able, can see this luminous eruption without any extra equipment. It is located within a binary system in the southern constellation Lupus. Here at the park, it is only visible just after sunset in the southern sky.

There were no previous records of this star and wasn't on anybody's radar. What a sweet summer treat! We have been waiting for Corona Borealis to do the same, but we guess this can hold us off in the meantime lol 😮 V462 Lupi may get even brighter over the next week or more, so keep on the lookout! (LH) by @petrifiedforestnps

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HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY, GERTIE! Stop by the Demonstration Lab today for #DinosaurDay to celebrate Gertie the Chindesaurus and its flight out of the Painted Desert on June 6, 1985. We’ll have Gertie’s REAL bones on display with some dinosaur fossils collected more recently. A limited amount of dinosaur cookies will be available at 1 pm. Can’t come in person? Check out this feature in the recent edition of Arizona Highways: https://www.arizonahighways.com/article/old-news
#FossilFriday #TriassicPark (am) taken in Petrified Forest National Park by @petrifiedforestnps

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Yesterday was #InternationalDinosaurDay but here at #TriassicPark we celebrate Dinosaur Day on June 6, which is this Friday! Also known as #GertieDay, this June 6 is the 40th anniversary of the airlift of Gertie the Chindesaurus from the Painted Desert. Stop by our Demonstration Lab on Friday from 9-12 and 1-3 to see Gertie’s real fossil bones and talk to paleontologists. Have a weird fossil at home? Bring it by and we’ll help identify it. See you soon! (am) by @petrifiedforestnps

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a year ago

Compare two views of the eroded landscape around Jasper Forest from an early 20th century postcard above and a more recent photo below. (hl) #PetrifiedForest #NationalPark #PetrifiedForestNationalPark #tbt #thenandnow #ThrowbackThursday by @petrifiedforestnps

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a year ago

by @petrifiedforestnps

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This #fossilfriday we’re celebrating the publication of new fossils of the aetosaur Calyptosuchus, an herbivorous ‘armadillo reptile’ collected in 2019 and 2021. The lead author was a paleo intern at the time and recently graduated with his PhD. This specimen is nicknamed ‘Gloria’ after the hippo character from the Madagascar movies (recommended listening while reading this FREE article is Big and Chunky from the second movie). Congrats Dr. Reyes! #parkscience #triassicpark (am) https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2024.42 taken in Petrified Forest National Park by @petrifiedforestnps

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Staff from Petrified Forest National Park got a jump on Earth Day 2025, with their 3rd Annual Puerco River Cleanup! Despite threatening weather, the crew removed tires, lumber, propane tanks and 20 large bags worth of trash from the river today. (jh) 🌎🚮 #EarthDay #nationalpark by @petrifiedforestnps

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