Petrified Forest Gift Shop & RV Park

If you are visiting the Petrifed Forest and need power, this is the best place. The sites are large and easy to get into. They have 5 pull-throughs and 6 back-end sites. We stayed in site 6; this site is huge as it is the last in the line of the back-in sites. We had our trailer and truck parked side by side with our slides out and still had enough room for another car.

This site is a 30 amp-only site; I did not check the other boxes. The staff was very friendly. They do not have water or dump available. But there is a Maverik's pretty close for those items.

The location is only a few hundred yards from the south entrance to the Petrified Forest, right off of Hwy 180. Even though you are right next to Hwy 180, there was very little traffic on this road at night, so we never heard any road noise. The campground does not have any lights, so the nights are clear and dark, and we loved it.

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.

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.

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.

The price is right and is dependent upon the amenities you are looking for. We stayed on the west side which has electric only. There is no dump station and no water. Both of the rv parks on this intersection are first come, first serve. The west side is electric only. The east side has water and I am not certain about dump station or service. When we arrived the only places available were located on the west side.

The gift shops associated with this place are very expensive for most things, especially petrified wood. I have seen where people felt that the staff was not very friendly, however we found them to be helpful and very nice. The shops are fascinating to just walk through and look at the various items for sale. It is also a museum of sorts and has some interesting displays which I found much more entertaining than the one we saw in the petrified forest.
We did find some reasonable geodes and petrified wood in the East museum shop for $2/lb. If you want petrified wood check out Dobell Ranch near here., Their prices are much better and the experience is unforgettable.
We really enjoyed their sense of humor here. There is an old car in the parking lot with a great big piece of petrified wood in the back of it. Hilarious! It is a must see to believe type thing.
We would definitely stay here again. There is not many places to camp near the Petrified forest and no rv camping in the forest. There is limited permit tent camping in the forest. This place does not allow tents (I think there is no place to put them) but they have teepees they rent out m, I believe. We had a nice trip, met some interesting people and enjoyed visiting the museums here.
We had limited cellular service. Plenty to make calls, texts, and slow internet searches. Not enough ummph to stream however on Verizon.