Tawa Point

The Painted Desert Inn is a historic building list on the National Register of Historic Places that offers tremendous views and murals by noted Hopi artist Fred Kabotie. The end point of the one mile rim trail is here.

Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark, located at Kachina Point 2 mi from the north entrance at exit #311 off of I-40, once served as a respite for travelers along historic Route 66. From the inn, you may view distant vistas and exhibits while touring this historic building.

A short trail leads around an 800-year-old pueblo that once contained 100 rooms and housed as many as 1200 people.

A roadside overlook leads to an area in which hundreds of petroglyphs have been etched into the rock.

A 1 mi loop trail leads into the Blue Mesa area, one of the most colorful landscapes of the park. Minerals in the soil have stained the surrounding bluffs with exquisite colors, while petrified logs have been deposited throughout the area as the bluffs have eroded.

This bridge was created as softer rocks eroded around a large petrified log, leaving a lengthy bridge between bluffs. The early park service built several stone supports to keep the bridge from collapsing, greatly diminishing the beauty of this natural wonder.