The Tepees South Pullout

The Tepees South Pullout is the southern of two roadside stops beside Petrified Forest’s banded, cone-shaped hills. It’s a compact viewpoint, and the lot also starts Historic Blue Forest Trail. I’d stop if you want a close look at the park’s layered Triassic rock; this is a geology pause, not a destination that needs a long visit.

The Tepees are 14 miles from the north entrance. The southern lot has auto and bus/RV parking and interpretive exhibits. For a photo, leave some gravel and desert scrub in the foreground to set the striped cones against the basin.

The Blue Mesa Member is best exposed around the Tepees. Its mudstone dates to about 220–225 million years ago, with gray, blue, purple and green layers and minor sandstone. Those colors record ancient soil and groundwater conditions: blue-green tones formed where soils stayed low in oxygen under a high water table; red tones formed when iron oxidized as groundwater levels shifted.

The Tepees area also exposes the older Mesa Redondo Member, laid down about 225–227 million years ago. Its dark-red siltstone and sandy conglomerate record floodplain deposits beside channels of Shinarump sandstone. The red beds make a useful contrast with the younger Blue Mesa colors.

The cones reminded people of tepees, though tipis aren’t part of this region’s tradition. Some Navajo people have compared one hill with a male hogan.