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South Entrance Station in Petrified Forest National Park

Entrance station · Petrified Forest National Park

South Entrance Station

The southern gate starts a 28-mile cross-park drive.

Type
Entrance station
Nearest trail
1.6 mi
Audio stories
3 nearby
DirectionsMap

Hear the audio tour

Teeth That Fooled Paleontologists

Overview

About South Entrance Station

Why stop

  • Direct entry from US 180 to the park road.

Heads up

  • A checkpoint rather than a separate attraction.

Map

Where it is

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Full map
Entrance stationSouth Entrance Station34.79951, -109.88537
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 South Entrance Station, 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 area

Teeth That Fooled Paleontologists
0:00 / 0:30
“A few fossil teeth once gave this park a dinosaur that turned out to be something else. Revueltosaurus had leaf-shaped teeth resembling those of plant-eating dinosaurs, so scientists initially put it in that group.”

Plays on the road 0.5 mi from South Entrance Station in the Parkwolf Petrified Forest Tour Guide.

More stories near here in the app

  • South Entrance Gift Shops and RV Stops
  • Rainbow Forest Museum and Giant Logs
  • Agate House's Petrified Walls
  • Hamilili Point's Younger Fossil Story
  • 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 South Entrance Station

The southern gateSouth Entrance Station is the fee checkpoint on US 180 at Petrified Forest National Park's…

South Entrance Station is the fee checkpoint on US 180 at Petrified Forest National Park's southern access. The park road runs north from here for 28 miles to I-40, so this is the practical start of a cross-park drive rather than a separate attraction to explore.

Passes at the entranceEntrance passes are sold at the station.

Entrance passes are sold at the station. If you're entering from the south, this is where the trip shifts from the highway to the park road.

Coming from HolbrookThe south entrance is about 19 miles south of Holbrook on US 180.

The south entrance is about 19 miles south of Holbrook on US 180. There is no public transportation to or within the park, so plan to arrive by vehicle.

entrancegatewayaccess

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 South Entrance Station

See it all on the map

Trails nearby

EasyGiant Logs Trail0.4 mi · 15 min · 1.6 mi awayA quick paved loop past giant logs, with several stair sets.EasyLong Logs and Agate House Trails2.6 mi · 1.5 hr · 1.6 mi awayPetrified logs and an ancient pueblo on a 2.6-mile round trip.EasyAgate House Trail2 mi · 1 hr · 1.6 mi awayA short paved start leads to a pueblo built from petrified wood.EasyLong Logs Trail1.6 mi · 1.5 hr · 1.7 mi awayBright petrified logs beneath gray and purple badlands.

More stops nearby

Campground · 0.5 mi awayCrystal Forest Gift Shop CampgroundA private RV base beside the park's south gate.Campground · 0.6 mi awayPetrified Forest Gift Shop and RV ParkA basic RV stop with 30-amp power near the south entrance.Sight · 1.4 mi awayAgate HouseA small hilltop pueblo built from petrified wood.Sight · 1.5 mi awayGiant LogsClose views of giant petrified logs on a short museum-side loop.Sight · 1.6 mi awayRainbow Forest MuseumFossils inside, giant logs waiting just outside.Store · 1.6 mi awayRainbow Forest Lodge Gift ShopA handy shop for souvenirs and privately sourced petrified wood.Sight · 1.7 mi awayLong LogsWalk among a colorful scatter of unusually long petrified logs.Scenic pullout · 3.4 mi awayHamilili PointA quick pullout for layered badlands and the Flattops skyline.

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.

4.7 from 8,600+ ratings

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