Ginko Petrified Forest State Park Backcountry

We drove out to Ginko Petrified Forest State Park near Vantage to hike some of the backcountry trails. We started out hiking up and across the bench to Sternberg Point, then returned via the closed road, making a 5.8 mile loop with 880 ft overall gain. We had nice views of the Columbia River, saw some bighorn sheep,wildflowes and some petrified wood pieces. We also saw a marmot and a lizard (no photos) Great day! Started out hiking up to the bench.

View of the Columbia River looking south towards the Vantage Bridge

Looking north along the Columbia River, in the distance we could see two bighorn sheep

zoom of these two bighorn sheep

More views of the Columbia River

Further up the trail we saw a group of 7 bighorn sheep, we kept our distance, these are zoom photos

Marker ann views at Sternberg Point, along with some petrified wood pieces

Some more views along the trail

Some of the wildflowers we saw today:

Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park

We stopped in Vantage Washington to walk the Ridge Trail and a long section of the Trees of Stone Interpretive Trail to make a 2 mile loop with 250 ft of gain. We went counterclock wise.

The trail goes up to a ridge, we had a view of the Columbia River in the distane.

fuzzy zoom of some of the elk we saw.

fuzzy zoom of some deer

The exhibits of petrified wood are located in concrete enclosures with wire on top along the Trees of Stone Interpretive Trail.

Photos of some of the petrified wood taken between the wire grids covering the exhibits.