The only national park containing a section of Historic Route 66, protecting one of the world's largest concentrations of petrified wood alongside the banded badlands of the Painted Desert and Triassic-era fossil beds. It recorded 559,254 recreation visits in 2024.
This place scores 75.8 out of 100, at high confidence. The score combines its published visitor count with public interest and tourism significance. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page.
Note on the data: The 2025 series reports zero recreation visits for month 10, a reporting gap rather than a measured figure, so 2024 is used as the reference year.
Painted Desert Inn is a historic complex in Petrified Forest National Park, in Apache County, eastern Arizona. It is located off Interstate 40 and near the original alignment of historic U.S. Route 66, overlooking the Painted Desert.
The Painted Desert Community Complex is the administrative center of Petrified Forest National Park. The community center includes administrative facilities, utility structures and National Park Service employee housing, planned by architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander as part of the Mission 66 park facilities improvement program. Work on the community began in 1961 and was completed by 1965.
