Painted Desert Inn Painted Desert Inn Painted Desert Inn is a lodge complex in Petrified Forest National Park, in Navajo County, eastern Arizona. It is located off of Interstate 40 and historic U.S. Route 66, overlooking the Painted Desert. The inn's lodge building and adobe guest cabins−"casitas" were designed in the Pueblo Revival style, by National Park Service architect Lyle E. Bennett and others from the Park Service Branch of Plans and Design. Construction was carried out by Civilian Conservation Corps builders and artisans over 1937–1940. A portion of the main lodge building was remodeled from the 1920s inn on the site, known
USS U. S. Grant (AP-29) transport not only carried Army troops, but also a Mexican liaison group; a detachment of Canadian troops, and a group of civilian correspondents. After a period of repairs in late 1943, which lasted into 1944, "U. S. Grant" resumed coastwise voyages to Alaska. From April to December, she shifted to the eastern Pacific to operate between Hawaii and the west coast. She often embarked medical patients to return them to the west coast from Hawaiian area hospitals. Arriving at San Francisco after one such voyage on 23 January 1945, "U. S. Grant" disembarked passengers and got underway the same afternoon