I’ve read about petrified wood but hadn’t seen any.  Ditto for Scott.  When we saw a sign for a petrified wood garden just outside the Badlands, our thought was, “Eh, why not?!”  It was $12 for the both of the us, the kids were free.  We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

The walk started with Evie’s now-favorite florescent rocks.  Apparently she’s going to be a blue light fan.  Anyone tells her about those new tattoos and you’re on our shit list for a good long time.

After that we stepped into the petrified garden.  A first Scott was irritated. He literally said, “This is stupid. These are stumps.”  Nope…  they were definitely rocks.  Once he realized that he hadn’t been taken to the cleaners (for that whooping $12), we had a great time running round.  The garden is about the size of a football field and there are petrified pieces everywhere.  I had no idea it all looked… so much like wood.  I mean, I get it… I just thought it would look more like a rock and less like a tree.  We learned about the process – one molecule at a time replacing the organic stuff with minerals.  Hand in the hand with the history lesson was a dinosaur lesson and the tour rounded out with a decent fossil room.

Had no idea it happened to moss too.

This one is for you, Brit.  This sucker must collect some crazy moon energy.  Rose quartz.

When we explained what it was to Evie, she just stood and gave it a hard look.  I have no idea what she was thinking.

I caved and bought Evie and Jack a little piece of rose quartz to play with for $1.50.  I usually don’t buy tourist trinkets, but are rocks really trinkets?  Maybe one of them will want to be a geologist.  They’re both fascinated with rocks – so much the better if they’re pink.  The Chief is now carrying at least a couple of pounds of a contraband rocks in hidden nooks and cranies.