We left early for the trek to the park’s Petrified Forest areas, taking a dirt road about six miles to the trailhead. Note: a very little yellow sign, attached at the bottom of the exit marker informed us that there was no re-entry onto the highway from this exit.
Cathy spotted this guy sleeping in the hollow. Jason spotted a mother and two fawns on the way out!
Jason is buttoned up and ready to hike under a light drizzle.
Jason took a couple of pictures on his pedestal.
This is the scene of the valley below as seen from the halfway point to the North/South trail junction. We were standing on the knob in the next photo.
We decided to take the northern route.
Jason is on the trail keeping an eye out for bison; the sky is darkening . . .
Jason and Cathy have fallen behind. I went up to the bluff to see if there were any bison around the bend .
We made it to the petrified forest and had the place to ourselves.
There were the remains of forest stumps everywhere.
We found this deep crevice which exposed a coal vein.
I spotted a bunny razing on the floor below and it scampered up into the hole dead center just below the grade. Somehow a rice crispy bar fell into the hole.
This is the view looking down the coal vein leading to the deepening canyon below.
Looking back at the area strewn with petrified wood, we enjoyed this view.
Cathy climbed out of the valley following one of the many bison trails.
Jason once again rushed to fill out the hiker register.
Jason politely held open the bison gate for the old(er) folks, leading from the National Grasslands to the Theodore Roosevelt Wilderness within the TRNP.
We stopped at the closed visitor center (there is an information table set up outside with a volunteer ranger) where Jason was sworn in as a Junior Ranger and received his badge. That makes eight different Junior Ranger badges, from CA to AK that he proudly displays on his hat!
After lunch, we made our way downtown for the Flag Day parade. Being a cowboy town deep into cowboy country, we expected to see horses. And we did!
Near the end of the parade, the Billings County Sheriff handed an honorary badge to Jason!
And finally, the most lauded entry of all . . . the pooper scooper team!
After the parade, we started out towards Elkhorn Ranch, Teddy’s favorite of his two ranches.μ The weather was brewing back in town but we were to experience some of its fury at the ranch. I made a 70 mile trip into a 100+ mile trip by taking the wrong dirt road, erroneously following some “Diamond Bar” signage to the wrong ranch. After going down a four-wheel drive trail to an apparently abandoned ranch, we figured that I made a wrong turn. We got out of the canyon quickly and continued on to the Elkhorn, using GPS coordinates.
There were herds of range cattle on the roadway in several places and we had to stop to clear the lane several times on the way to the ranch.
After taking yet another wrong turn down another abandoned road, we finally made our way to the real ranch site. We were the fourth vehicle to visit this site today. This is the third part of the park and easily the most inaccessible but we agreed the trip was worth the effort. The valley was simply gorgeous, but upon arrival the skies opened up, lightning was striking on three sides and the thunder was incredible. Knowing the condition of the roads on the way in, we high-tailed it out of there after the short visit.
The sunlight was rapidly being overtaken by the storm and the scenery was almost surreal.
As we were approaching the interstate, Cathy noticed these sheep being guarded by two very large white dogs. They came down to the road-line and barked at us and the sheep reacted appropriately by moving away. The dogs did their duty, I wasn’t about to leave the vehicle.
Our short trip morphed into a very long four+ hours and we now have a truck covered in mud. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow. Jason and I are planning on another cross-park hike.
Travelling with the Schinglers 