Day 134: A Fun Day in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

August 26, 2014

This morning was extremely foggy with a temperature of 46 degrees. So much for the weather forecast of sunny skies. The fog lifted around 9:00, but it was still cloudy. Around 10:00 there started to be some breaks with some blue skies and sun.

We decided to go ahead with our plans to hike to the Petrified Forest in the north-west portion of the park. Shortly after leaving the campground we saw some more wild horses, this time right next to the road. They sure look healthy.

We could have hiked to the Petrified Forest from the campground but that would have been 16 miles so we elected to drive to a trail that was within about 1.5 miles of the forest. See we are not totally crazy. By the time we arrived at the trail head it was a gorgeous day. All the rain the past three days made for a very muddy trail and our boots were soon pretty heavy with mud. We are very glad we did not attempt this yesterday. Today, with the sun, the trail was drying out pretty quickly. It was interesting that we were in the Badlands with the rocky hills, and then hiked over a ridge top where there was a total change and we were in the grasslands. This was still some rough walking with the knee to waist high grasses. We were not really sure what to expect. We have been to some petrified trees and forests in some different areas and at times have been really underwhelmed. Saw things that we certainly couldn't identify and the skeptic in us really wondered about. Today was different. The sign at the trail head said that this area 60 million years ago was much like today's everglades filled with Cyprus trees. When we arrive at the petrified trees, we could actually tell they used to be Cyprus tree stumps. It was really neat. So we hiked around a while. Took lots of pictures of the petrified stumps and the area in general. Then we hiked back out. We both agreed we really enjoyed the hike and would recommend it.

Muddy Trail

 

 

 

One thing we learned about the soil here is that the top layer dries quickly but just under the surface is very slick mud.

After the petrified forest hike, we went to the east side of the park to the Painted Canyon. Wow! Another beautiful location and lots more pictures were required. This was really just a large viewing area of the canyons and all different the colors in the rocks.

Since everything we were doing today was within the National Park and they don't allow dogs on any of their trails we then went back to Fred to get Scout and take him on a good walk around the campground. He was very appreciative. That's it for today. Tomorrow drive both vehicles to Storm Mountain Center (Rapid City, SD) to visit with our friends there (and hopefully our new tow bar will arrive within a day or two).