Overshadowed by the Grand Canyon, this quiet desert park might just surprise you. From rainbow-colored badlands to Route 66 nostalgia, here’s why Petrified Forest is worth the detour.

Fossils of trees and a desert with red, tan and lavender shades await visitors at Petrified Forest National Park, about 116 miles east of Flagstaff.

A Smithsonian-led team of researchers have discovered North America's oldest known pterosaur, the winged reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs and were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight.