Petrified Forest Gift Shop & RV Park

This is a nice and simple campground- it’s a gravel horseshoe-shaped lot with 30amp electric sites, nicely spaced, hardly busy at all. Across the street is a free campground where campers were squeezed in like sardines with no hookups. For $25, go across the street to the Gift Shop and enjoy electricity & elbow room.
The campground is about 1/2 mile from the south entrance of Petrified Forest and the Rainbow Forest Visitors Center, accessable from Hwy 180. Although we did not, we could have towed our 27’ trailer through the National Park (28 miles from north to south). There’s lots of accommodation for RV parking throughout the NP.
Note that gas/diesel is 17 miles away in Holbrook AZ. There is no dump station at this campground to my knowledge.

Easy access. About a dozen spots with either pads or picnic tables. Large gravel parking lots for overflow. Camping is free. I was there right before Memorial Day Weekend and there were plenty of spots left.

It states clearly that this is only for fully self-contained RV's. No tent camping. You must have a toilet to stay. Good Verizon signal.

We stayed here in April on a weekday, there were only 2 other campers here. It is a first come first serve campground. Because it dropped to 17 degrees while we were here we opted for the electric thinking it was $16 as previous campers have stated but we were informed it would be $25 each night plus tax. In addition the lady in the gift shop was very rude. That being said the proximity to Petrified Forest cannot be beat.

We pulled into this place around 4pm on a Thursday and spent the night. We had a few other neighbors parked but still plenty of space for everyone. There are a few spots with covered picnic tables, and we got one of those. We were heading east so in the morning we just drove through the petrified forest (highly recommend that) and continued on 40. Really awesome place to stop if you just need a secure place to park.

We stayed here three nights to be able to have two full days in the park. Well worth it. At the northwest side of the road to the park gate is the gift shop and parking lot camping with electrical. And I think that is still $16/night. We stayed on the southeast side of the road with no electricity and no cost. Both sides have picnic tables. We always had neighbors who came in late in the day and left when the park gate opened in the morning. When we got here, we just pulled into the free non-electrical side and setup without checking at the gift store. This side also has a gift shop building, but it is closed and boarded up. It is all a very tired looking area but we would stay again because of the ease of touring the park from here.

You can see on google earth that there is an additional fenced area to the NE of the area on this side directly off the entrance from the road. The additional area has plenty of space and nine concrete pads. It seems like the entrance to that area is blocked with a petrified stump, but a big pickup could still squeeze into it. I don't know what the status of that area is.

There are no restrooms available on this side at all. The gift shop has rest rooms but there were signs on them saying they are out of order and closed. I don't know if that is short or long term. So you must bring your own pot to pee in. There are restrooms 2 miles up the road at the park museum and the park is open from 8 to 5. There is nothing to do here other than chat up the neighbors, tour the gift store, or go into the park.

The gift shop has an amazing collection of rocks that deserves a good long look. The lady at the desk when I was in there was very pleasant.

The park is open 8 am to 5 pm. There is a gate on a timer that automatically opens at 8 am to let visitors in. That gate closes at 5 pm, but it has a motion sensor. It will open to let visitors out after 5:00 so you won't get stuck inside the park. The rangers seem to be at the popular spots to hustle folks along at about 5, but I don't think they are particularly pushy. We were always out at about 5.

This parking lost has a minor slope to it. We easily leveled a 30 ft trailer. It is dirt/gravel. There would be some spots to avoid when it was wet. We had a picnic table and ramada, both rather beat up. It feels safe and secure. We were gone all day both days. It is flat country and nothing to stop the wind. This free side is a little tighter to move around in, but there is lots of room for big rigs on the other side. It was easy to get our 30 ft trailer in here while it was empty. It would have been a little trickier if this side had been full.

Anyone that dreams of staying under the stars as close as you can get to staying in the petrified forest should stay here one side is for anyone who wants to plug in. $16 super cheap for sleeping around chunks of petrified wood and gazing at the night sky. Bad WiFi so if that is a big deal to you don’t stay here. If it’s not and you want to just enjoy it you will love it. You need to have your own bathroom too no staying in a car here.

Picture this: as you turn off highway 180 to the entrance to Petrified Forest National Park, there are two gift stores, one on your left and one on the right, both just before the park gate (park closes at five pm).

The one on the right does not charge for camping and offers no services, per Campendium. I did not confirm this.

The petrified wood store and campground on the left give you a 30 amp electric-only site for $16. The rest rooms in the store are closed. There are no rest rooms in the campground. You must be self-contained to stay here. The campground is just a large dirt and gravel area. Our site was muddy because it had rained a bit. It’s certainly quiet out here in the middle of nowhere.

Probably the biggest surprise, and a good one, based on other reviews, is that I have four bars of 3G AT&T service.

The person inside was very friendly and let me choose my own site.

The access and location are superb to visit Petrified Forest NP, but the campground itself is a bare bones operation that needs a real makeover.

One thing that is unique is that there is petrified wood bordering entire park and each site. That being said, I do agree with another post that staff inside store was not the friendliest. It could be the general disposition of the worker that was off-putting though, nothing in particular. She did not allow us to pick a site, just assigned us one, so we ended up with 3 RVs packed together on the same side of park when nicer sites were open and empty on the opposite side with more shade. They don’t accept debit/credit cards for purchases under $10, and items are very expensive in the shop. Sites are small with a concrete slab and picnic table at each site. Electric hookups only, no water or dump station close by- that we were able to find. Closest store/gas was 17 miles down the road. You are truly out in nowhere here. Nothing remarkable nearby to see from your site, lots of desert terrain. You are right near the entrance to the Petrified Forest, so that’s a bonus. We actually had decent service with Verizon. It remained 2-3 bars and we were able to use the internet and stream with only a couple of short buffering breaks.