Petrified Forest National Park Self-guided Driving Audio Tour

very nice tout of all the views and vistas. we would go again if we are out there again.

The information shared was good - I appreciated that they indicated that it shared that portions included hikes if present. One downside is you need to have the app open for it to play otherwise it cuts in and out - hard to take pictures at times, if playing from a phone.

Love these self guided tours. You can visit at your own pace. Very user friendly and because they are downloaded to your appliance they are a great keepsake too!

I would say overall it was worth it. Got some good information that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

This program was really informative. It gave you lots of details about each site and history.

Very informative and gave us history on the spots. Petrified Forest Park is a unique evolution of time. Glad to witness history dating back million of years.

The audio for Petrified Forest NP was excellent!!! It really helps to know you are seeing.

After some uncertainty about whether or not I purchased the right pass for the right day for the audio tour, my friend and I were pleasantly surprised that all worked exactly as described. The self guided tour was perfect! It provided desired background and context as we moved through the park (we started north and moved south to Holbrook). I loved that we could jump out at any point and the app picked us up as we started to drive again. The skies were beautiful, the park wasn’t crowded — couldn’t have asked for a better day and a fantastic experience!

Our experience was enhanced due to the audio tour. I appreciated the gps feature and info on each point of interest. I took away one star because the information provided was basic and somewhat uninteresting.

Listening about each stop as approaching is very beneficial. You can decide if you want to stop and view or hike/walk. Having the length of the walk/trail lets you know if you can.

We paid for the petrified forest and the address that was given to where we should start. The trip was a road that has not been used in probably 50 years. It had a barrier across it and the desert had taken it over.

Through no fault of TripAdvisor, unfortunately the park was closed due to the Government Shutdown 😒 Bad timing, a number of disappointed people.

Using this audio guide was an excellent way to explore the Petrified Forest National Park. It gave a lot of interesting facts about the park and the geology of the region. If we didn't have the audio guide, I feel the park would have been a lot less interesting. At one spot - Blue Mesa Trail - even if you aren't planning on walking the trail, take the road to the trail. We felt it had some of the most interesting landscapes. I would highly recommend this audio guide.

What a learning experience! The painted desert was just beautiful. And there was nothing better than seeing all that petrified wood/trees. And learning how it happened.

We bought this experience on a whim as we were driving through the area. We didn't have time for hiking so this was a great alternative. Loved all the facts and if you let it have access to your location while driving through, the stories are right on time.

The app worked well. The narrator was easy to listen to. This made our drive through the park easier and we stopped at every pull out to see what we had learned about.

The App did not work at all. It merely walked us thru introductory videos. We entered thru south entrance and after introductory video it did not proceed along as we started driving. Luckily my wife downloaded national forest app and that guided us very nicely. Very disappointed

Loved all the educational information provided and flexibility if you wandered off to a trail. Would do it again.

This audio tour made our 28 mile driving and easy hiking experience wonderful! So easy to download and gave us background information on history, what to look for and what you might consider doing!

This was a fantastic tour! My daughter and I were on a cross country trip and used this for the drive though the park. We LOVED it! We would have missed so much without it. We are excited to is more of these during our trip!!

This is a must see destination. The self guided audio tour was very informative and we loved getting history lessons along our drive! Highly recommend!

It was a lovely experience. You do have to drive. We took our dog and she did well. There are not a lot of water fountains or access to water, so bring plenty. The driving tour app was accurate and informative. It definitely helps supplement the signage. Great experience definitely recommend.

Beautiful scenery, fascinating history. A well guided tour! From start to finish. Just be sure you don’t have any apps open when you begin. And very important to set it all up while you have Wi-Fi.

I was confused as to which was the better starting point: south entrance off 180 or north entrance off hwy 40. We took the north entrance as it was near noon and we had lunch at the diner. No eating facilities at the south entrance. There was a video loop in the diner where we watched while waiting for our food. Starting from the north we saw the Painted Desert first. Then as we got about 2/3 of the way, we saw The Petrified Forest. The Audio Tour ($17) was excellent and provided all the stopping points with narrative about the location and history. It took us about 2 hr to 2 1/2 hr to complete the drive with about 5 min stops. We are elderly and didn’t do any of the hiking. If taking the 1+ hikes, the trip will take longer than 2.5 hours. The park closes at 5 pm, so no entry. Recommended leaving by 6:30pm.

The app worked well except it kept cutting out at times while we were driving to the next stop and often repeated stories. We enjoyed all the information. It made our tour of Petrified Forest National very meaningful.

Nice flexibility to be able to stop and start the tour guide voice at our leisure. Also was able to have a tour that went in the right direction of the park for our location heading south to north. (Some tours didn’t have that option.)

This self directed Tour was perfect for our drive through the petrified forest in Arizona. The narration was matched perfectly when we arrived at our stops and we learned a lot about the geology and history of the area

Such good audio throughout the park. Great info and tons of content. Good for kids and adults! Highly recommend for Painted National Park visit!

The petrified forest was nice and very interesting Tomasz was very knowledgeable about the history how the rocks was created

Blue Mesa was amazing! Petroglyphs were an unexpected experience. Audio tour was a great guide though the Park.

Good information but not the best driving tour we have ever had. Information would start and then restart again. Still enjoyable.

We enjoyed all the beautiful landscape and learning about the history of the petrified forest. It’s very large and has lots of stops and trail options. Restrooms are available in several places. The gift shop has friendly staff and cute gift items at the end.

Very helpful and informative. We stopped places we would not have if it weren’t for the guide! Places that don’t appear to be of interest respectfully are!

Absolutely stunning. Neither words nor photos can do it justice. We purchased the audio tour and it really enhanced to our experience. We would recommend that for everyone.

We really loved this recorded tour for the Petrified Forest National Park. The GPS integrates wonderfully with the stories and information. We could not have been happier.

This was my first time trying a self-guided audio tour, and I loved it! Especially traveling alone and looking for a non-social outdoor activity, I would highly recommend it. Great information that you would miss otherwise, planned out accordingly, and just overall a great experience.

Beautiful park to visit. Very diverse. Lots of easy walkways to experience the beauty. Visitor center and gift shops at the beginning and end.

This was a perfectly timed Audio guide. It was wonderful to hear about the history and facts about the park as we drove through.

Great and informative. Follow the instructions and you can’t go wrong. We really enjoyed this audio tour and the time we spent exploring the Petrified Forest.

Our drive through the Petrified Forest would not have been as meaningful without this audio tour! It was wonderful to hear what we were approaching and driving by. We enjoyed many of the pull offs with short hikes. The GPS system worked perfectly! Well worth the money! Wish I had this in other drive tours! Highly recommend!

We loved the back stories and history of the stops on this tour. It was easy to follow. Only problem was if we backtracked, I couldn't figure out how to get our 'guide' to catch up to where we actually were. But it was easy enough to manually choose the stops. We will look at these tours for other vacation spots!

Great way to view the park at your leisure. The gps keeps you on track but allows to stop as much or as little as you want. Will use again and definitely recommend to others.

Absolutly awesome, used it in The petrified forest, and it was just spot on with all the Knowledge and the GPS location. We Will use this in, grand canyon, California and Nevada aswell, and will recommend it to others. Hopefully they will do a lot in Europe.

This was our second driving tour experience. We enjoyed the experience and appreciated the additional context, history, commentary as we drove through the park. This tour is absolutely worth the cost. If you're on the fence, this is your sign to try the tour!

Crystal Forest was our favorite walk. We were able to see crystals and an abundant view of the petrified wood up close.

Blue Messa. Petroglyphs. Crystal Forest. Awesome experience! I would encourage a trip to this National Park. The audio tour is very helpful and gives you tons of good information!

It was an unexpectedly beautiful Park with vista a plenty.Even if you do not appreciate the beauty of erosion and its patterns there is enough color and variation to draw favoer from the strongest anti rock hound. My wife has a new appreciation of earths historical time line and it effect on fauna and flora. The museum in the southern section is top notch with dinosaur thar I have never seen before along with great exhibits and timelines, We spent 4 days at the park while staying in Holbrook which is about a half hours drive away. There are two roads to the park. Highway 40 takes you to the northern entrance while 180 will get you to the southern entrance. The highlight of the trip were the private tours given by Dan Carroll of the Blue Mesa area and the Ice Cream rocks. I have enclosed a few photos to try to convey the beauty of the areas the we saw on these tours. Dan has been in the area for years and is very knowledgeable about the specific fauna and flora of the area. The Ice Cream Rocks were quite a delightful surprise. We have never seen any thing like this area. It is out of the park boundaries and we had to take a government SUV as the location is out of the park boundaries.These both were half day tours. Quite a thrill. these adventures may be booked through the Petrified Forest National Park Museum Foundation. Our tours were scheduled by a nice lady named Tara Young (928-5246228 ext 239). Other than eating fast food the whole time with the exception of the eating at Colonel Mustard in Holbrook,which make the best Chicago Dogs this side of the windy city, there were no negatives to complain about. The private tours were $89.00 per person in October 2023.

I had no idea there was a specific entrance you had to go to to start your audio! We came in the south entrance, which apparently was the end of the audio. It was a total waste of money for us as we missed the entire audio tour!

The information presented was really helpful to understand the history and geography of the park. For the most part the stories were well synchronized with the location. When they weren't, we might have been going too fast. If you miss a story, you can repeat it with the app.