Tiponi Point

Tiponi Point is a roadside overlook just half a mile inside Petrified Forest’s north entrance, looking over the red part of the Painted Desert. It gives you a quick first read of the badlands; if you’re choosing only one or two views, keep going to the later overlooks for different angles. The lot serves cars and buses/RVs, with some pull-through spaces, a bike rack and a wayside exhibit.

Rounded red and pink hills fill the basin, with pale bands and gullies breaking up the slopes. The broad sweep is the reason to stop. For a wide photo, leave some of the low scrub at the rim in the foreground; it gives the colored hills another layer instead of a bare horizon.

The name comes from the Hopi word tíiponi, a sacred object kept by a leader.