Petrified Gardens

After leaving Pierre, I drove through what seemed like endless grassland all the way down to I-90. Then, after a while I started seeing umpteen signs for all the attractions the Black Hills area can offer, from real sights like Mt Rushmore and the Badlands to more curious stuff, like the Petrified Garden.

The name does not lie. It is a large backyard full of petrified trees, even some petrified moss. Indoors there are more petrified objects and fossils and bones of long extinct species. It is fascinating in a slow, horribly boring way. It only costs five bucks and they have a store with some reasonably cheap polished stones and fossils and such.

All pics here.

Overview. At this point I already suspected that I was the only person insane enough to walk around in the sun. I was right.


If you say so.


Again, I'll take your word for it.


Don't say this blog is not informative!


Shoulder blade of a titanothere, an animal not unlike the modern day rhino.


Rocks under ultraviolet light. Or was it infrared? Fuck knows.


Some of these petrified tree slices were quite nice.


Grass, glorious grass.