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Hamilili Point in Petrified Forest National Park

Scenic pullout · Petrified Forest National Park

Hamilili Point

A quick pullout for layered badlands and the Flattops skyline.

Photo: National Park Service
Type
Scenic pullout
Nearest trail
1.7 mi
Audio stories
5 nearby
  • Pullout
  • Parking
  • Scenic viewpoint
DirectionsMap

Hear the audio tour

Hamilili Point's Younger Fossil Story

Overview

About Hamilili Point

Why stop

  • Distinct views across several named rock layers
Hamilili Point is a scenic pullout on the main park road at mile marker 24, just west of the Flattops. The view opens across deeply eroded badlands, and the pullout also serves as access to the southern unit of Petrified Forest National Wilderness Area. Come for a short geological stop; the classic view is right at the road.
Parkwolf’s verdictA worthwhile roadside stop

Map

Where it is

Loading the Petrified Forest map
Full map
Scenic pulloutHamilili Point34.82544, -109.83527
Keep this map with you offline in the Parkwolf app

Plan your stop

Before you go

2 active Petrified Forest alerts

  • ClosurePainted Desert Visitor Center closed for constructionThe Painted Desert Visitor Center is closed for construction; visitor-center operations are at the Painted Desert Inn, two miles past the north entrance station.Official details
  • ClosureAgate House closed to visitorsAgate House is closed to the public because of physical safety concerns; stay at least 15 feet from the structure. - The closure remains in effect until terminated in writing by the park.Official details
Petrified Forest alerts
A park ranger sits on a dash-mounted phone, talking, as Parkwolf’s Tour Guide plays “Army Cutworm Moths: A Grizzly Bear Buffet” on Grand Loop Road below Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone
Parkwolf Tour GuideThe highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.

Petrified Forest Tour Guide

Your drive to Hamilili Point, narrated.

Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Petrified Forest National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.

See the Petrified Forest audio tour

Recorded for this place

Hamilili Point's Younger Fossil Story
0:00 / 0:25
“Hamilili Point is coming up, a roadside pullout overlooking deeply eroded badlands near the Flattops. The name means petrified wood in Zuni, but there's a different fossil story here too.”

Plays as you drive up to Hamilili Point in the Parkwolf Petrified Forest Tour Guide.

More stories near here in the app

  • Agate House's Petrified Walls
  • The Living Skin of the Soil
  • Water from a Dry Meal
  • Rainbow Forest Museum and Giant Logs
  • 35 audio storiesacross Petrified Forest’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
  • Wildlife heatmapsfor Pronghorn, Mule Deer, Coyote, and 13 more
  • Works offlinemaps, 16 trails, 33 places, and audio download before you lose signal
  • CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
★★★★★
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
JMJamesApp Store review
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4.7 from 8,600+ ratings

Guide

More about Hamilili Point

Read the layersAcross the basin, look for the Martha’s Butte and Jim Camp Wash beds in the Sonsela Member of…

Across the basin, look for the Martha’s Butte and Jim Camp Wash beds in the Sonsela Member of the Chinle Formation, with brown strata of the much younger Mio-Pliocene Bidahochi Formation above them. Those named layers make this more than a generic badlands panorama. For a photo, keep the branching gullies in the foreground and the flat-topped mesas on the skyline.

A name with a fossil storyHamilili means “petrified wood” in Zuni.

Hamilili means “petrified wood” in Zuni. In 2009, a fossil from the artiodactyl group of mammals was found near the point in the Bidahochi Formation. It is the park’s only vertebrate fossil recovered from a non-Triassic-aged rock unit, a striking exception in a park best known for its much older fossil record.

If you go beyond the pulloutThis is also a starting point for the south wilderness, where the landscape is highly eroded…

This is also a starting point for the south wilderness, where the landscape is highly eroded and includes badlands and petrified wood. Expect little shade and no water once you head out. The Flattops themselves have no trails; for any wilderness walk, check the park’s current rules and be back at your vehicle by closing time.

badlandsgeologyviewpointwilderness

Wildlife

Wildlife in Petrified Forest

All Petrified Forest wildlife maps
Pronghorn185 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapMule Deer172 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapCoyote100 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapWapiti33 sightingsWapitiMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapGunnison's Prairie Dog35 sightingsGunnison's Prairie DogMost seen around 8 AMSighting mapPorcupine56 sightingsPorcupineMost seen around 7 PMSighting map

Sighting maps show where each species has been reported across Petrified Forest. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.

Keep exploring

Near Hamilili Point

See it all on the map

Trails nearby

EasyLong Logs Trail1.6 mi · 1.5 hr · 1.7 mi awayBright petrified logs beneath gray and purple badlands.EasyAgate House Trail2 mi · 1 hr · 1.8 mi awayA short paved start leads to a pueblo built from petrified wood.EasyLong Logs and Agate House Trails2.6 mi · 1.5 hr · 1.8 mi awayPetrified logs and an ancient pueblo on a 2.6-mile round trip.EasyGiant Logs Trail0.4 mi · 15 min · 1.9 mi awayA quick paved loop past giant logs, with several stair sets.EasyCrystal Forest Trail0.9 mi · 30 min · 3.6 mi awayA short loop among colorful logs scattered across purple badlands.ModerateFirst Forest Point4.2 mi · 3 hr · 4.6 mi awayWash route-finding leads to petrified wood and a mesa view.ModerateJasper Forest Hike2.5 mi · 1.5 hr · 4.6 mi awayA disappearing road threads a dense field of ancient petrified logs.

More stops nearby

Sight · 0.5 mi awayHamilili DuneRed sand breaks up the pale, layered badlands.Sight · 1.7 mi awayLong LogsWalk among a colorful scatter of unusually long petrified logs.Store · 1.8 mi awayRainbow Forest Lodge Gift ShopA handy shop for souvenirs and privately sourced petrified wood.Sight · 1.9 mi awayRainbow Forest MuseumFossils inside, giant logs waiting just outside.Sight · 1.9 mi awayGiant LogsClose views of giant petrified logs on a short museum-side loop.Sight · 2.1 mi awayAgate HouseA small hilltop pueblo built from petrified wood.Entrance station · 3.4 mi awaySouth Entrance StationThe southern gate starts a 28-mile cross-park drive.Sight · 3.7 mi awayCrystal ForestQuartz flashes in the petrified logs along this short paved loop.

Parkwolf’s Petrified Forest ranking

Top sights in Petrified Forest

All 33 places
  1. 1Blue Mesa OverlookSight
  2. 2Giant LogsSight
  3. 3Crystal ForestSight
  4. 4Painted Desert InnSight
  5. 5Rainbow Forest MuseumSight
  6. 6Kachina PointSight

Take Parkwolf to Petrified Forest.

The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.

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