GART Day 3 - Crappy Day at Teddy Roosevelt Park

Talk about a total bust.

Look, I'm pretty okay at reading maps, all right? I'm more than happy having Tamara as my trusty navigator, but I can get by just fine when she's not around. However, this did not prevent me from driving back ad forth over the same stretch of ground about 200 times while I was looking for trailhead that would take me out to the petrified forest.

Like, could you guys maybe mark the trails? Y'know, with a sign or something that says "Petrified Forest" and a big arrow pointing in some direction? Instead of giving me some stupid map with the trails not even marked all that well?

As it was, I never found the trailhead. I did manage to find a trail that kind of started in the middle of a field and led down to the bank of the Little Missouri river, but I chose not to wade across it, mostly because I was unsure what would happen on the other side. Like, is there a trail there or what? Could you maybe give me a sign?

So while I didn't get to do any of the hiking I had planned, I did manage to climb all over some stuff and take a few trails through some other areas, like the sandstone and the now extinguished coal fire.

I knew these coal fires burned a long time, but this one was found burning in 1880 and finally burned itself out in 1977. I spoke to some people who were here in 1968, and they said there was smoke coming out of the ground and the whole area had an awful smell. It was also really interesting to see how these sorts of things are just a regular part of the area's life cycle, and the effect they have on the environment.

I got back to our hotel room all hot and sweaty, and although I was later than I expected, we still managed to squeeze in a brief swim before heading out to supper. Tamara bought us tickets to the Medora Musical this afternoon, which actually sounds kind of okay. But we'll see.