The Window Trail can be reached from the same parking lot as the Door Trail. It is only a 1/4 mile round trip trail on a boardwalk which leads to a natural window in the Badlands Wall with a view of an intricately eroded canyon. |
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Below: The two RV Gypsies on the boardwalk of the Window Trail. They did not walk on the dirt trail seen behind them because they thought it just led to a look at part of the Door Trail they finished earlier. |
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Below: At the end of the boardwalk, the two RV Gypsies got a look at intricately eroded canyon of the Badlands. |
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Below: Sharp cliffs, and a window in a cliff - as seen from the end
of the boardwalk. |
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Walking back along the boardwalk to the parking lot, the two RV Gypsies watched a rabbit hopping along the bunny trail. |
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Below: Driving a short distance
down the road, the two RV Gypsies stopped to photograph a group of about
ten Bighorn Sheep. |
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Then the two RV Gypsies drove on to the Fossil Exhibit Trail. A Park Ranger was showing and explaining some of the fossils to a group of park visitors. Then the two RV Gypsies walked the 1/4 mile round trip trail to view signs with fossil replicas and exhibits of now extinct creatures that once roamed the area, which surprisingly even included an alligator.
All species either had to adapt, move, or die as the displays explain. |
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Ammonite fossil - relatives of octopuses and squid |
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Titanothere fossil - sort of like modern rhinoceroses. The discovery of this specimen led to the golden age of paleontology in North America. |
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Alligators lived in the badlands area 34 - 37 million years ago when the climate was like modern-day Florida. |
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Horses were once dog-sized. Mesohippus was the first 3-toed horse, ancestors to earlier horses with 5-toes. |
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Hesperocyon was one of the earliest members of the dog family, but looked more like a weasel or mongoose. |
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Nimravids resembled large saber-tooth cats. They are now extinct. |
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Oreodont fossils resembled sheep or pigs,but were unrelated. They are now extinct. |
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Below: Beautiful Badlands scenery off to the side of the Fossils Trail. |
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