Badlands Petrified Gardens
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
2 reviews for Badlands Petrified Gardens
2 reviews in English
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Review from Krsna V.
6/11/2008 3 photos
For those of you who do not know what petrified wood is: Petrified wood is made up of tree trunks that were buried in the mud, sand, or volcanic ash 150 million years ago, and has turned to stone. This action is caused by water that seeps through the mud and sand, into the buried logs. There it fills the empty cells of the decaying wood with mineral matter, until the whole structure has become solid stone.
There is a huge petrified wood park in Lemmon, SD, but this one is right off of I-90 and we stopped by. I have only read about petrified wood before and wanted to see it for myself.
Not a big garden, but they have quite a variety. There are many different sizes and shapes of petrified wood. They also sell different semi-precious stones by the pound. The stones are in a raw state and need polishing but, it is a good deal if you are looking to buy some stones in the crude form and make your own jewelry.
I bought a beautiful bison made out of Ammonite. There is also a small museum where you can see the original footprints of dinosaurs that roamed south Dakota many million years ago.
I had a creepy feeling going to the location because it is in the middle of the nowhere and there was nobody at the gardens except for us. I kept having this crazy thought that the guy who sold the entrance ticket will come out with a shotgun and start firing at us....but, that didn't happen. So, it's all good.
A good place to visit for a quick lesson in petrified wood.Listed in: Road trippin'
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Review from Melinda K.
Broken Bow, NE
6/3/2011
Very disappointed. Don't waste your money here. It was just a lot that needed mowed and petrified wood samples scattered around. They really need to invest in a grass trimmer. It was somewhat educational but most of all a waste of money and time.
