Parking
Use the Rainbow Forest Museum parking area. Walk east along the paved access over Jim Camp Wash to the joint Long Logs and Agate House trail approach on the south side of the road.
Overview
About Agate House Trail
Why go
- A short walk reaches an unusual pueblo built from petrified wood.
- The paved approach gives way to a distinct gravel spur.
Heads up
- The pueblo stays outside a 15-foot buffer, so you view it from a distance.
- The rough stretch limits the mobility advantage of the paved start.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Petrified Forest map
Full mapElevation5,459–5,489 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
2 active Petrified Forest alerts
- ClosureAgate House closed to visitorsMentions Agate House, referenced in this guideAgate 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
- 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
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Petrified Forest Tour Guide
Your drive to Agate House Trail, 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 tourRecorded for this trailhead
Rainbow Forest Museum and Giant Logs0:00 / 0:35
“Up ahead is Rainbow Forest Museum, a good stop for seeing the park's prehistoric animals as well as its trees.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Petrified Forest Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Agate House's Petrified Walls
- Teeth That Fooled Paleontologists
- Hamilili Point's Younger Fossil Story
- South Entrance Gift Shops and RV Stops
- 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!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Agate House Trail
The walkThis two-mile round-trip out-and-back starts at Rainbow Forest Museum parking, follows the…
This two-mile round-trip out-and-back starts at Rainbow Forest Museum parking, follows the paved access to the shared trail approach, then takes the rougher Agate House spur to a viewing point outside the pueblo. Allow about an hour. It’s a good short walk if you want an unusual piece of park history; keep to this spur if Agate House is your goal, since the Long Logs loop is a separate detour. NPS lists the two trails combined at 2.6 miles round trip.
Paved first, rougher laterThe first half-mile is paved and suitable for strollers and powered or manual mobility…
The first half-mile is paved and suitable for strollers and powered or manual mobility equipment. Beyond that, the surface is rough. The average grade is 4.1%, with a maximum grade of 14.7% and cross slope up to 10.4%, so the paved start doesn’t make the full route suitable for every mobility aid.
The house at the endAgate House is an eight-room ancestral Puebloan home built from petrified wood.
Agate House is an eight-room ancestral Puebloan home built from petrified wood. Archaeologists believe it was occupied briefly about 700 years ago; its entrance was through the ceiling. The site is culturally significant to Hopi and Zuni people and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The low rooms and vivid wood blocks make this the walk’s main payoff.
The structure is closed to entry for safety. Visitors must stay at least 15 feet away, so plan to look from outside the buffer and then return the way you came. The Rainbow Forest Museum is beside the parking area if you want a separate interpretive stop.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Petrified Forest
185 sightingsPronghornMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
172 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
100 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
33 sightingsWapitiMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
35 sightingsGunnison's Prairie DogMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
56 sightingsPorcupineMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Petrified Forest. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
