The Painted Desert covers an area of 93,533 acres that stretches southeast from the Grand Canyon to the Petrified Forest National Park. The desert derives it's name from the multi-hued badlands of the Chinle Formation rocks that cover the park.

As the Painted Desert erodes from mineralized water flows and mineral deposits, the fossilized artifacts from the Triassic Era (220 million years ago) have become exposed, most notably the remains of an ancient conifer forest.