After we paid the park entrance fee ($16, I think), we picked up our FREE back country permit from the visitors center first thing. There we were told we were going to be the only people in the desert that night.

After we did all the road side attractions by car, we headed to the trial head at the Painted Desert Inn. About 1.5 hours before sun set, we backpacked into the Painted Desert from the Inn visitors center where there is water and toilets available. The trail that goes down about 200 feet via switchbacks then ends in a magical lunar landscape of red dirt and petrified pieces of tree. Once you get to the end of that trail, you just have to walk 1 mile in any direction to camp. We hiked a for about an hour across amazing desert-scape and found an incredible plateau to camp on top of. We had a fantastic view of the surrounding dessert without being able to see any man-made structures!

While it is definitely back country camping with no water, electric, toilets, defined sites or anything, it is the most amazing camping I've ever done! There's no light pollution so seeing the stars and the milky way is is no problem. It's so quite, my husband said all he could hear all night was his tinnitus.

It was beautiful, magical and remote. I would go again and again. There's so much to explore and so far you can go. We even found out you can bring your dog with you in the desert!

The only downside is you have to pack in all your water with you, making a multi-day trip a little harder.

Pros:

• The most fantastic and magical backpacking you can imagine
• So remote and peaceful
• You can see the Milky Way (it was my first time seeing it).
• You can bring your dog!
• Incredible lunar landscape! You get to live out fantasies of being part of the Apollo 11 mission

Cons:

• No amenities in the desert (no water available to pump from natural sources either)
• No showers for when you get off the trail

You should camp in the Painted Desert. Seriously, do it!!