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1999 |
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| My friend and I stayed the first night at the Cottonwood campground in the South Unit. It was a very nice area because it was only a short hike to the Little Missouri River. We hiked up to a hilltop to view the sunset over the river. The campground was nestled in a grove of Cottonwoods (hence the name). We woke up the next morning and we saw a buffalo had walked through our camp and was only about 10 yards away. We gathered our things after the buffalo moved off and we drove to the entrance of the Petrified Forest Trail. The Petrified Forest Trail is located on the west side of the South Unit. We entered the trail near some oil pumps. At the beginning of the trail we saw a deer as we hiked up to the top of a ridge. We followed the trail down into a canyon of sorts. We could see buffalo off in the distance but they were at least a mile away. As we walked on we noticed that we were in the middle of a Petrified Forest. These "trees" were not very big, but some were big stumps. These were trees that were petrified due to various forces of nature. It was really cool. We continued on as it was nearing noon. |
| It was hot that day and the sun was beating down on us all day. We got to a point where the trail seemed to end. We lost sight of the trail markers and thought we were at a dead end. After searching and backtracking we finally figured out that the trail went up over a butte and that the trail marker was where we could not see it. We proceeded until we found a nice grassy area in a thick area of trees. We decided to take a quick nap before we put up our tent. After we woke up we realized we had napped for at least an hour and a half and that we were beat from the sun and dehydration. We drank some water and put up the tent. During the process we scared a deer and he jumped through the woods away from us. Later we made dinner and watched the sun set over the valley. Our view was awesome. We could see the Little Missouri River below and multi-colored rock formations. Once the stars came out we went to bed. |
| The next morning we woke up early and made breakfast and packed up our gear. We had only hiked about half of this trail so we knew we had quite a ways to go before we got back to the car. As we were hiking down the trail we could see a herd of buffalo off in the distance. It turns out that they were right on our path and that we would have to go around them. This area was all open and there were no trees so there was no way we could get away from a running herd. We made sure we were far enough away and they did not seemed bothered by us. There were many young bison in the herd so it was probably good that we did not approach them too close. We continued our hike through a portion of rocky terrain and finally ended up at the car. we pack our things in the car and drove to the North Unit. |
| We arrived in the North Unit and set up camp at one of the campgrounds in the park. Then we took a drive to the end of the road and took many pictures of the river and the overlooks. The scenery here was just as beautiful as it was in the South Unit. We hiked around our campground, then we got settled in for bed. The next morning we packed up our things and saw many buffalo roaming through our campground. We drove down the road a ways and stopped to hike out to see several Longhorn Steers. Boy do they have long horns. We got back in the car and headed home. It had been a beautiful day and a great trip. |
