Petrified Forest welcomes backcountry hikers

• Petrified Forest National Park is creating treks that show off the backcountry
• Hikers should be well supplied and able to navigate without trails
• Highlights include petrified wood and Native American artifacts

I suddenly realized I was lost in the Painted Desert.

I was wandering through a maze of slumped mudstone hills and crumbling cliffs. I had set out for Onyx Bridge — a petrified log stretched across a shallow wash — but had veered off course. Instead of retracing my steps to get back on track, I bid adios to Onyx Bridge and pushed deeper into the badlands with no agenda except to revel in the sights and the silence.

I was lost, but not scary lost. A couple of miles away, the old Painted Desert Inn perched atop a high ridge. That was my starting point and as long as I could lay eyeballs on it, I was good. Using that visual tether, I meandered through the backcountry of Petrified Forest National Park.

Many visitors don't realize that the park's backcountry is open for exploring. I sure didn't. The park has always been more of a windshield experience. A beautiful 28-mile drive cuts from the Painted Desert north of Interstate 40 to the Petrified Forest south of it. There are pullouts, overlooks and a few short, paved trails, which visitors are admonished to stay on. Although the scenery is spectacular, a visitor may feel confined to an asphalt sliver surrounded by a forbidden expanse.

But the park staff recently began encouraging visitors to leave the pavement behind. They're mapping routes into the outback and posting them online. With about 220,000 acres, there's plenty to see.

"The backcountry has always been open," says park superintendent Brad Traver. "But we've not done a good job of communicating that fact. Our landscape allows people to travel without trails, so we're trying to give them a safe and easy way to see some really great stuff."

Petrified Forest is the hall monitor of national parks. It's been a stickler for rules even to the point of being a scold. But it has good reason: Theft of petrified wood is the park's biggest problem. One study estimated that 12 tons a year are pilfered.

"Over the past decades, the park has been less than welcoming," Traver says. "We may have overemphasized the wood-theft issue. While it's very important, we don't want to come across as harsh. These new backcountry routes are one attempt to be more welcoming."

The park has posted seven Off the Beaten Trail routes on its website, with more to come. Some are short and relatively easy. Others are more complicated treks requiring navigational skills and route-finding abilities. It's important to understand that, with one exception, these are not trails. There are no signs or other markings. You're making your way across open terrain, relying on your sense of direction.

That's a dangerous scenario for me. This is an embarrassing admission for an experienced hiker to make, but I have a terrible sense of direction. I can get lost going to visit my neighbor. But I'm keenly aware of this shortcoming, so I try to compensate by memorizing landmarks, studying the route behind me and staying alert.

The short journey to Martha's Butte is a good introduction to the backcountry experience. It's a 1-mile hike to a distinctive hill visible from the road. Several boulders scattered around the base of the butte are adorned with petroglyphs. After parking at a small bridge, I dropped into Dry Wash and followed it north.

At some point I had to climb out of the wash and angle toward my destination. That felt decidedly strange. I realized how accustomed I am to following a path, no matter how slender or faint. This random strolling was disconcerting at first, but I got the hang of it.

I spotted fresh pronghorn tracks and scanned the patchy grasslands ahead, but I was the only thing moving. The ground is a mosaic of crunchy gravel, rocks and petrified-wood shards. I know from talking to rangers that there are plenty of fossils scattered about as well, but I don't have a keen enough eye to distinguish many. I paused to examine a few items but left everything undisturbed. Research is ongoing in the park. Moving a fragment takes it out of context and robs it of its scientific value. Don't do it.

Besides, I was too busy falling in love with the sky to keep my eyes cast downward. I travel all over the state and nowhere does the sky feel as immense and untamed as here on the high plains. It is a crushing sky, a great cloud-filled beast that sweeps the mountains back far beyond distant horizons. It is a mesmerizing dome punctuated with fleets of clouds, shafts of sunlight and a dark bruise of a faraway storm.

At the base of Martha's Butte — no one knows who Martha was — I spotted a spiral petroglyph that served as a solar marker. During sunrise on the summer solstice, it is sliced in half by light and shadow. I circled the clay hill, picking out images carved into the boulders. There were geometric patterns, animals, (presumably) human feet and a couple of distinctive birds. The prehistoric people who occupied these lands used to trade for parrots.

On the small clay hill south of Martha's Butte, a large petrified log juts out at a curious angle. This once was thought to be a petrified stump, but some gentle excavation by park naturalist Myrl Walker in 1936 proved that it was merely a log embedded in the clay. It's known as Walker's Stump.

As far as I'm concerned, this new backcountry initiative is a game changer for Petrified Forest. It dramatically alters what a visit to the park can be. The Off the Beaten Trail hikes venture into all corners of this seductive landscape, including the 15,228 acres that were acquired from the Bureau of Land Management in 2007. Of course, visitors are free to explore other areas on their own with adequate preparation.

I've always adored the scenery of Petrified Forest but visit only sporadically. As a curmudgeonly old hiker, I like to slip free of chattering crowds and walk for miles. I seek places far from any sign of civilization. Places so freakishly quiet that the sound of a lizard sneezing can be heard a football field away. I just found another.

I'll be back soon. I still want to find that darn Onyx Bridge.

Find the reporter at www.rogernaylor.com.

Petrified Forest National Park

Where: North and south of Interstate 40 about 20 miles east of Holbrook. The northern entrance is at Exit 311 off I-40. The southern entrance is 19 miles east of Holbrook off U.S. 180.

Admission: $10 per vehicle, good for seven days.

Backcountry hiking: Off the Beaten Trail routes are posted on the website. Handouts are available at the visitor center. GPS coordinates are available for some routes. Wear sturdy shoes and carry food, water, sun protection and navigation aids. Do not hike in wet conditions or if there is lightning; in this flat terrain, you're often the tallest thing out there. Ranger-led backcountry hikes are planned for this fall. Contact the park for details.

Backcountry etiquette: Where trails are available, please stay on them. They are meant to protect the fragile landscape. Don't touch petroglyphs; oils from your skin can damage them. Leave petrified wood and artifacts in place. It is a crime to remove anything. Petrified wood can be purchased, legally and inexpensively, in and outside the park.

Details: 928-524-6228, www.nps.gov/pefo.