The Painted Desert stretches for 300 miles from Arizona's Grand Canyon to the Petrified Forest at Holbrook. These badlands are known for their brightly colored, banded rock sculptures. Sandstone and siltstone layers vary from a light palette of white and pastel shades to dark bands of oxide reds, blues and violets. Although the Hopi and Navajo lived along the Little Colorado River for at least the last thousand years, it was the Spanish explorers that named the area el Desierto Pinture.
Only a portion of the 100,000 acre desert is protected by the national parks system. The Petrified Forest National Park is linked with the Painted Desert and is bisected by Interstate 40. The remainder of beautiful colored desert sands are controlled by the BLM, the Navajo Nation and private landowners.