Closest entrances and distances: 23 miles from the Gardiner (north) entrance; 29 miles from the Cooke City (northeast) entrance
Just beyond the Petrified Tree, you'll come to Tower-Roosevelt, the most relaxed of the park's villages and a great place to take a break from the more crowded attractions. Even if you aren't going to stay, you might want to make a quick stop at the Tower Soldier Station, now the ranger residence at Tower Junction, one of three surviving outposts from the era of U.S. Cavalry management of the park. Also here is Roosevelt Lodge, a rustic building that commemorates President Theodore Roosevelt's camping excursion to this area of the park, in 1903. It now serves as a dining hall, bar, and registration area for visitors staying at nearby frontier cabins. You can get into the cowboy spirit by taking a guided trail ride, a stagecoach ride, or a wagon ride. A more adventurous alternative to the rather rustic dining-room atmosphere at Roosevelt Lodge is the lodge's Old West cookout, to which you will arrive by either horseback or wagon for a hearty meal. There's a range of other services in this spot, including a Yellowstone Park General Store if you need to buy provisions, and a gas station.
At Specimen Ridge, 2 1/2 miles east of the Tower Junction on the Northeast Entrance Road, you'll find a ridge that entombs one of the world's most extensive fossil forests. Between 45 million and 50 million years ago, the mature forest that stood here was engulfed by deep volcanic ash some 27 times; subsequent erosion has exposed more than 100 different fossilized species in an area that spans 40 square miles.
