North Dakota’s famous Theodore Roosevelt National Park is full of unique geological formations that draw in thousands of visitors. The painted canyons and the rugged terrain are beautiful, but there is more within the park than that. If you follow a specific trail in the park’s South Unit you’ll discover this:
Hiking on this trail in the park will take you to spots with the most amazing views of the badlands, but that’s not the main attraction of the trail.
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The trail is called the Petrified Forest Loop. The name gives away what you’ll find here. It is pretty much an outdoor, natural fossil museum of trees that stood when the dinosaurs roamed.
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These tree-stump looking rock formations are exactly that. They are prehistoric trees turned into stone after thousands of years of environmental changes that froze them in time.
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The unique appearance of these fossils was caused by sediments covering the original trees. The slow process of mineralization that replaced their original form with minerals caused them to turn into solid stone in unusual colors and shapes. This is something you won’t find anywhere else in North Dakota.
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This is one of the last and largest petrified forests left in the country, and you can only imagine how huge these trees were when you see just how big the stone remains of them are in person.
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The Petrified Forest Loop is a 10 mile trail loop in the South Unit of the park. For more information, visit the trail information page of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park by clicking here.
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There are many more amazing natural wonders in western North Dakota near this place. You can see this and more on our jam-packed, ultimate Western North Dakota Scenic Wonders Road Trip!
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