On December 8 and 9, Petrified Forest National Park east of Flagstaff, on the high bunchgrass plains of northern Arizona, will celebrate its 102^nd birthday.  

This strange sweep of muted pastel dirt-humps, littered with swirling-color petrified wood, became a national monument 102 years ago on December 8, 1906, and was promoted to a national park on December 9, 1962.   The monument suffered from nearly too much love and interest when it was a natural and favorite stop for roadtrippers along Route 66.  The land was nearly picked clean of its signature remains, the ancient left-overs of the primordial swamps that once held sway in what some Arizonans call the “dinosaur belt” in the northeastern corner of the state.  When you visit the park today—a must on any itinerary—the warnings are strict and many about not taking any of the petrified wood, but you can buy it at dilapidated tourists traps on the park’s boundaries. 

According to the Park Service, a Holiday Open House is scheduled for December 8 and will include hot drinks, cookies, and “holiday cheer” at the Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark from 10 am to 4 pm.  The inn, which was redesigned by architect Mary Jane Colter in the late 1940s for the Fred Harvey Company, has several wall murals painted by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie that are definitely worth seeing.

Petrified Forest National park is awash with a kind of commercial nostalgia for the golden age of the Fred Harvey Company and high-style southwest tourism.  To really do it right, stay overnight at Winslow’s La Posada , a short drive west on Interstate 40 from the park.  Also designed by Colter for Fred Harvey, La Posada has in recent years been totally refurbished and is a romantic and enchanting place to be.