Petrified Forest Gift Shop & RV Park

Crystal Forest Gift Shop is actually two stores and two campgrounds (one owner for both). Driving towards Petrified Forest, the campground the left side has 30 amp electric sites for around $10 a night and the one on the right is free. Both campgrounds have fairly level gravel spots, but be prepared for mud on a rainy day. Neither has a dump station or water. Even though the campsites are situated next to the main road (Hwy 180), this out of the way location offers very little traffic and road noise (at least during the off season). This is good place to camp if visiting the southern part of Petrified Forest National Park (where the trees are!). It is convenient located 1/2 mile from the southern park entrance.

We stayed in the pay campground on the west side, the free campground is on the east side. The only hookup you get is 30 amp electric (though we discovered after having to reset the breaker that it's actually rated for 20 amp service). Electric boxes are locked so you must arrive from 11am-6pm to get your site unlocked. We stayed a week to see the large supermoon since this area stays clear for night viewing - we never saw more than 1-3 other campers stay each night, so you don't have to worry about availability. There's no water or dump - the employees in the gift shops said their well water is awful and they wouldn't put it in their car or give to their dog. They only use it for sanitation purposes (restroom). You can buy bottled drinking water and beer (most plentiful item there) in the gift shop. There are 10 total electric sites. Sites 1-4 has a trench that will make backing a trailer into difficult without possibly scraping the back end on the ground. They're short as well so they're best suited for truck/van campers. Sites 5-10 are flat and better for longer rigs, and all sites are level. All sites are back-in but there's lots of room to maneuver making it easy. It's next to the highway but there is seldom any vehicle driving past, especially at night so it's peacefully quiet. You're right at the entrance to the national park at the end where the concentration of petrified wood sites are. There is a picnic shelter at the visitor's center where we found a water spigot and have been filling our 5-gal containers for free, vs driving 18 miles to Holbrook and paying the KOA campground $5 to refill the RV tank. We work online and must have good Verizon LTE signal wherever we camp - our Jetpack gets 50-60% signal strength without even turning on the WE boost. We really enjoyed our week-long stay and would choose to stay here if passing through again.

This is the only place in the area south of Petrified Park. It's quiet at night. Electric hookups only. Watch out for the ants! Don't walk around outside in pants that drag on the ground, or you might have a load of biting ants! We hope our unpleasant experience of a bite will help others be vigilant. We noticed one fifth wheel had white powder all around his levelers.

You have your choice of free camping with no hookups, or 30 amp electric for $10.00/night. Due to the high temps, we chose the site with electric so we could run the AC. This appears to be a little used resources. It is located at the south entrance to the park. With a senior pass, entrance to the park is free. This was a great experience.

Glad to find an electric site for so cheap.
Pretty quiet and right at the south entrance to the petrified forest.

Ok. I got a little confused with what I was reading here. There are TWO different campgrounds here, not one. Crystal Forest, on the right hand of the road pulling in, is free, but has no electricity. It does have some sites with picnic tables and canopies over them. Sites are pretty level and some nice views. Some sites are pull through and some are back in. Little picnic areas with fake teepees adds to it's funkiness. Dumpster on site.

Now, the other campground is on the left when you pull in, has no name on it. This one has power at the sites. All sites are back in some have picnic tables, but not all. This camp is $10.00 per night. The camp is closer to the highway, so you can hear the traffic when there is some. Traffic is light. Sites 1-6, I would only use if you have a small rig. There is a wash that runs right through those sites and with a big rig, you will never get level! There are some trees at this camp making it nice on a sunny day. The rest of the sites, 7-12 can handle bigger rigs, but anything more than 36 feet would be pushing it. 30 amp hook ups at most sites.

Big thing. None of these camps have water or sewer or BATHROOMS! Either campground. You need to be self contained. Be prepared coming out here. The closest town, Holbrook, is 20 miles away.

Stayed here for 1 night in February. The gift shop/museum were closed when we arrived (5:30 PM) due to the winter storm and the park being closed. Thank goodness one of the electric boxes was unlocked so we had power for the night. If you plan on using electric call ahead of time and ask them to unlock a box! Southern entrance to park is right there! Pay $20 to enter and spend the day. We left the RV parked until about noon at the site and once the gift shop opened up we went in and paid. The gift shop closed early the night before and didn’t open until about 11 the next day! The lady inside was flustered when we paid and said she tried to knock on our door and she didnt know what was going on...I explained about them closing early and opening late, that I found them on harvest, and that we even called hours before we arrived. She didnt seemed thrilled to have us but we still had power for the night so whatever. Only negative is the service here. We would stay again if we had to and show up in the early part of day before they shut down. Gravel lot, pretty level, quiet. Wonderful restaurants about 18 miles away.

Convenient stopover right outside the south entrance of The Petrified Forest.

Self contained rigs only, no restroom, water or trash.

This was a nice place to stay, right at the south entrance to Petrified Forest National Park. We stayed here March 2-3, 2020, and the price went up in January to $12 (plus tax). Looks like there were a handful of sites across the street for free. Either option would work. Depends if you need the electric or can boondock. There were several other campers in the lot. Plenty of room to maneuver and back in. It was a bit windy, but otherwise pretty quiet. Not much traffic in the road right next to the campground. There was a gift shop at this campground and a museum across the street at the free campground.

One thing we couldn't figure out was why there were so many old, broken down (flat tires) cars parked at each place (about five or six cars in each parking lot) all day and all night. Weird. But we felt safe and would stay here again.

This is a parking area outside the gift shop, right outside entrance to Petrified Forest National Park. There are 2 sites on either side. 1 lot has the museum with free RV parking. The other lot has 10 electric plugs with a gravel pad and picnic table each. We were one of about 5 RVs that night. You pay $12.78 at the shop, get a key to unlock the electric box and return the key. Checkout is 10 am the next day. Lock the padlock on the box when you leave. It rained overnight and we had to step into red muddy spots.