For 100 years, the National Park Service has preserved America’s special places “for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.” Celebrate its second century with the Find Your Park GeoTour that launched April 2016 and explore these geocaches placed for you by National Park Service Rangers and their partners.
geocaching.com/play/geotours/findyourpark
The Painted Desert Inn was originally constructed by Herbert Lore in 1924. Contructed of native stone, including petrified wood, it was nicknamed 'the Stone Tree House' and was a popular stop along Route 66. The building and land was purchased by the National Park Service and expanded in the 1930s to the current Pueblo style. The Fred Harvey Company operated the building after World War II and originally there was a restaurant, soda fountain, and trade room upstairs. The building only served as an Inn for a short time, from the late 1930s to the early 1940s. After this time the rooms were used for Fred Harvey Co. employees.
The coordinates take you to the kitchen, operated when the Fred Harvey Company ran the dining room here. The interior design color scheme was devised by the famous architect and interior designer Mary Jane Colter. The cache container is inside the building. Use the hint provided below to locate the cache. You'll need stealth at busy times of the year (summer).Because of COVID the building is closed and the exact GZ is not accessible. Please log the cache as found if you know where the GZ is.
Please note this is meant to be a take only cache. Please bring a pen and sign the log. You do not need to leave any items in the cache. Please respect the rules and regulations of the park and the resources it was established to protect.
This is a Federal Fee Area and an entrance fee to Petrified Forest National Park (currently $20/ vehicle) is required to access this cache. This cache is only accessible during park operating hours when the building is open (generally closes at 5pm).