Blue Mesa
Some of the park's most beautiful badlands, the Blue Mesa area is accessible via a 3.5-mile loop road off the main park highway.
Plan Around Blue Mesa
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Use this detail page to confirm that the stop is worth it, then carry that decision into a trip draft while the park context is still fresh.
Blue Mesa Details
Some of the park's most beautiful badlands, the Blue Mesa area is accessible via a 3.5-mile loop road off the main park highway, as well as a worthwhile one-mile loop hiking trail into the area. Here, blue, gray, white, lavender and green striated mounds, cones, buttes and fins rise dramatically above an otherwise flat landscape. The Blue Mesa Member is part of the Chinle Formation, which is the geological basis for the Painted Desert. These thick deposits of grey, blue, purple, and green stripes are the combined result of mineral presence and water levels at the time of sedimentary deposition. The area is also littered with the park's namesake petrified wood.
Difficulty
Low
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Nearby Parks Around Blue Mesa
Compare nearby parks around Blue Mesa when deciding whether to expand the route after this stop.
Nearby Points of Interest Around Blue Mesa
Use nearby POIs to quickly expand your options beyond Blue Mesa while the map context is still fresh.
0.3 mi away
Blue Forest Trail
The Historic Blue Forest Trail is 1.5 miles one-way, including 1.2 miles off the beaten path and .3 miles on the Blue Mesa Loop Trail.
0.3 mi away
The Tepees
These cone-shaped hills lie along the park's main road, in the southern unit of Petrified Forest.
1.0 mi away
Blue Mesa Trail
Beginning at the Blue Mesa sun shelter, this 1-mile loop trail descends from the mesa into the badlands.
1.1 mi away
Billings Gap Overlook Hike
This off-the-beaten-path hike is slightly less than 3 miles round-trip, and takes visitors to a viewpoint of the Billings Gap area and badlands east of Blue Mesa.
1.3 mi away
Red Basin/Clam Beds Hike
This 6-mile round-trip hike is part of newly acquired land within Petrified Forest National Park.
