Petrified Forest and Painted Canyon

We took two great hikes into the National Park. The first was Petrifed Forest, which is a "forest" of fossils and petrified trees that were buried by flood deposits and volcanic ash. We hiked through the prairie to get to the Petrified Forest. It was a super cool hike that ended with the cattle were waiting for us by our car.







When Grammie came to town, we started our visit at the Painted Canyon. After a short ranger program, we talked Grammie into a mile hike into the bottom of the Canyon. Initially she didn't want to do it. But she did great and it was a beautiful hike. We then ventured over to a tour of Theodore Roosevelt's Maltese Cross Cabin, with Emily, a cool forest ranger, that taught us a lot on this trip. While in Medora, we stayed at the Bunkhouse, an interesting economical lodging (kids loved it because it had a pool).