Painted Desert: A Permanent Rainbow in the Desert

Painted Desert is located in Arizona in an area of the Badlands that makes up the Four Corners region (Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexican borders). Also part of Petrified Forest National Park, this area has some amazing geology that has settled into a striped pattern, creating a beautiful rainbow-like landscape.

Geology

This area has relatively thin layers of siltstone, mudstone and shale, all of which erode easily under water and wind conditions. In addition to iron and manganese compounds, which add a lot of the colour to the layers, lacustrine (meaning formed by a lake) limestone and volcanic flow caps on top help to preserve these beautiful stratifications. Under certain light conditions these colours pop, creating an undulating rainbow.

While not originally classified under geology, this area also has petrified trees, where fossilised trees have been slowly replaced over time with rock, leaving tree trunks, stumps and branches of beautifully coloured rock. You can see and read more about these at Petrified Forest National Park [link].

Exploring the Painted Desert

The area has two main ways to explore it: driving and by foot.

Like all national monuments, the use of cars and motor vehicles is strictly regulated. For this one, you can drive around part of the rim, which has several viewpoints to stop at and feature several trailheads.

If you are going by car, you need to start at the Painted Desert Visitors Center, which is located off exit 311 on Interstate 40. Once you enter the park, you are put onto Main Park Road, which is a short drive of only a couple of miles/kilometres.

If you are deciding to hike in this region, enter the area via the Visitors Center. You can park there and hike the Painted Desert Rim Trail or alternatively drive to one of the viewpoints and then take one of the other trails that go through this area.