Agate House

Agate House is an eight-room ancestral Puebloan dwelling on a low hill in Rainbow Forest. Its walls are built largely from petrified wood, which makes this a distinctive stop if you’re interested in the park’s archaeology. The house is modest, though, and the visit includes a two-mile walk, so it suits a slower day more than a quick roadside stop.

The out-and-back starts at the Rainbow Forest Museum parking lot. The first half-mile is paved; the rest has a rough surface. The walk is exposed, and a shade shelter sits where the route meets Long Logs Trail. Combine the two if you want to see more petrified wood along the way. The paved section works for strollers and manual or powered mobility equipment; beyond it, the rough surface changes the trip. Plan for the sun and bring water, as the house is a walk from the trailhead.

The house is fragile: don’t sit, stand, lean on, or climb its walls. From the hilltop you can look across Rainbow Forest, and the petrified-wood walls make the main close-up photo. You have to walk the trail to get either view.

The house was built and occupied sometime between 1050 and 1300. Large pieces of petrified wood form the walls, set in mud mortar; smaller pieces were used to fill gaps. It was likely a year-round home for one family living near their fields and the petrified wood, and it may also have served as a meeting place. Few artifacts were found, suggesting the occupation may have been brief. Agate House may look isolated, but hundreds of similar petrified-wood building sites have since been found across the park, many from the Pueblo II and III periods.

A Civil Works Administration crew reconstructed the house during the winter of 1933–34 under archaeologist Cornelius B. Cosgrove Jr., using original material. It helps you see how petrified wood could be used to build a dwelling, but it isn’t a completely accurate reproduction. The place is culturally significant to Hopi and Zuni people and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.