Many of the Petrified Forest visitors are intensely interested in the
Painted Desert, lying only a few miles from Adamana. On U. S. Highway
66, six miles from the Rio Puerco, one comes to a sign: “Painted Desert
Inn”. A mile from the highway this inn is stationed. But before reaching
the building, an abrupt climb brings one to the top of the mesa, and
spread out before the eyes is the world’s most magnificent palette, with
the colors ready mixed,—The Painted Desert. It is a breath-taking vision
that bursts on one’s sight, this “El Pintado Desierto” that Coronado
stumbled upon and named in 1540. As far as one can see colors mingle and
glow. From the most delicate lavendar to the deepest purple, from palest
pink to flaming red, greens, browns, chocolate and blues, all the colors
are here. This desert does not lie in level sandy stretches, but is
formed of mounds and hills, and varying sizes of “haystacks”.
With each hour, as the light changes in the sky, so change the colors of
this wonderland. It is truly the foot of the rainbow. Walk down the
trail and there is the bewildered feeling that one has strayed into an
immense paint factory which has just been badly wrecked! The sand
underfoot is light, almost like burnt earth, but the colors are there,
mixed by the Super Artist.
This Painted Desert is a fitting frame for the Petrified Forest.