RUN BY: Petrified
Forest/Crystal Forest Gift Shop
LOCATION: South
Entrance to Petrified Forest NP (34.7914 -109.8971)
UTILITIES: Electricity
for $10/night during season
COST: None
DISCOUNTS: N/A
OUR RATING (1-5): Category III. Rating 3.5
NOTES: The Petrified
Forest Gift Shop, which has the large parking lot used for over-night camping,
is owned by the same people as the Crystal Forest Museum and Gifts across the
street. Petrified Forest Gift Shop was closed for the season. They have electric on ten sites for
$10/night. The electricity was turned
off when we were there the nights of Nov 27 and 28th. We have solar and are accustomed to boondocking,
so we didn’t care. There were about six derelict cars sitting in front of the
Petrified Forest Gift Shop. Other than that the place was clean and the Crystal
Forest gift shop was beautiful. The staff were very friendly. This place is less than one-hundred yards
from the entrance to Petrified Forest National Park. The park well worth your
effort to see.
Environment:
Gravel parking lot in the middle of high desert.
Amenities: None
Dump: No
Public Water: No
Toilets: No
Showers: No
Laundry: No
(The Giant gas station at 28 N Hwy 77, advertises laundromat)
Phone Service: Verizon, 4G-2 bars
Nearest Propane: The
Giant gas station at 28 N Hwy 77, advertises propane & propane exchange
Location: From Holbrook, AZ take AZ-77 south. Shortly after crossing the Little Colorado
River US-180 will be on your left.
Follow US-180 to Petrified Forest Road.
Petrified Forest Gift Shop is at that intersection. 34.7914 -109.8971
Proximity to shopping:
Holbrook, AZ is 18 miles away.
Camping Population:
With a four day limit and being right on the road, it is mostly visitors
like ourselves. There was a Class-A here when we arrived and we had a Class-B
with us one night.
Sites: There
are concrete pads for picnic tables and electricity along the back of the
parking lot. There are at least 12 such sites.
But the lot is extremely large and could handle several more rigs.
======================================================================
RATING KEY:
category - score
Categories: I -
established campgrounds where one might spend a vacation or several days
II
- boondocking, dry camping where there
are no designated sites and no amenities but
one might choose to stay for more than a night.
III
- over-night areas
You must remember that we are scoring 1 thru 5 according to
things which are important to us: the environment, cost, amenities,
location, safety, camping population, site, phone service
* There are people who are not full-timers and van-dwellers
by choice. We try hard not to be demeaning or assume that they are bad people
but sadly, as you find in the poorer parts of a city, there seems to be more
crime. Many call these people van-dwellers. That isn’t really accurate even
though they do often live in vans. We know quite a few van-dwellers who have
good incomes, are full-timers by choice and prefer a van to other types of
vehicles. To try to show some respect for people who have a difficult lot in life,
I’m calling them ‘residential campers’. It is only when you get a high proportion of
residential campers in an area that you find an increase in petty theft,
etc.
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