September 21-24
Day 100. We moved to Cottonwood Campground (South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP) in the morning (several good spots to choose from). We like NP campgrounds, well managed, good quality, almost never fail – and this one had good new bathrooms. We started up River Road and then continued on Scenic Loop Road as far as possible (the loop was closed at some point). Stops: bison herd, prairie dog city, Wind Canyon Trail, Boicourt Overlook, Buck Hill, Jones Creek, Coal Vein Trail. It was all day of lazy scrolling (mostly by car) and looking at badlands scenery. Very nice park, not crowded, lots of animals, vast views. A lot to photograph.
Day 101. Moved again in the morning a few spots down the campground loop. We checked, bisons were still there and so were prairie dogs. But we spent the day in Petrified Forest in wilderness area of the park, after visiting Theodore Roosevelt cabin. We did move very slowly, starting on the south leg of the loop and then crossing off-trail to the north leg (we did not have time to walk full loop). We like to wander across badlands, trail or not (Badlands NP, Ah-shi-sle-pah and Bisti Wilderness) and here landscape was littered with thousands of petrified tree stumps, a lot to explore. Piotr showed good skills finding short-cut exploring carefully terrain with binoculars: first finding the shortest way avoiding small obstacles and then looking for solitary bisons as we did not want to meet them in bushes. We had to cross what looked like trails to water hole. It worked well ( not really that difficult).
Prairie dogs
Petrified forest
We were quite relaxed the last two days, as our road trip was coming to an end. We could finally slow down in place we did not even know for sure we would visit. We were really surprised what we found. Pictures tell it all.
Day 102 & 103.
Only driving home was left. We stopped at Skyline Vista and walked Painted Canyon Trail. We stayed overnight at Fargo Expressway Suites, then I-94 and I-90 to Chicago.
