Joseph City – January 2026
This locality has been printed in rockhounding guidebooks for 40+ years. One guidebook mentions that “heavy collecting” has occurred here and pickings aren’t as abundant as they once were. Don’t believe everything you read, the petrified wood was plentiful. /
One thing that is said about the petrified wood here is that it’s not as colorful as the petrified wood closer to Holbrook. We found this to be true; most of the petrified wood we found was grey and colorless. However, it had excellent cellular replacement which makes it look convincingly life-like but not useful for lapidary purposes. One rock was so realistic that our dog, Laika, thought it was a stick and almost picked it up to chew on.
This spot is very close to the town of Joseph City and I-40 but the road is a bit rough. A vehicle with a little extra ground clearance is recommended.
The material seemed to be more abundant in the slopes of the gentle hills and washes. Keep an eye on your location as this area is a mix of private land and public BLM land.
If you’re in the area it’s probably worth checking out, but for better material DoBell’s fee dig is a better option.
We parked and explored around at 34.96979, -110.28690 but be careful to stay only on public lands.
