We Made it to the Highest Point East of the Rockies!

We're settled for the next couple of weeks in Custer, SD, in the heart of the Black Hills National Forest, just minutes from Custer State Park. Our home base, Custer's Gulch RV Park, is just outside the hustle and bustle of the touristy town and, even though we're now in prime summer season, we have decent site separation and our site backs up to National Forest land.

Site #25 at Custer's Gulch RV Park.

With absolutely perfect weather on tap we chose to do the most popular trail in Custer State Park as our first hike in the area; everything we read said this hike was worth the crowds. Of course the way to beat the crowds is to start early. We were on the trail early enough, 8:30am, to have a near empty parking lot and the trail practically to ourselves.

Harney Peak, at 7,242 ft, is the highest point between the Rocky Mountains and the Pyrenees of Europe AND it's got amazing 360 degree views AND it's topped with a beautiful CCC-built fire lookout tower...no wonder people flock to it like a magnet!

The southern route is 3.5 miles one way, starting out with a modest incline, and increasing in steepness and rockiness over the last mile. The northern route is 4.7 miles one way and is said to be quite challenging. We took the southern route and made it a loop hike, taking the Little Devil's Tower trail back, making it an 8.3 mile hike.

The trail starts at beautiful Sylvan Lake.
At the end our hike in midafternoon the lake area was busy with small boats and swimmers and walkers and fishermen.

The Black Hills has a complex geologic makeup, and its Precambrian granite core is around 2 billion years old. Not long into our hike we were treated to vistas showcasing granite outcroppings of this core.

About a half mile into the hike, whenever we broke out of the trees, our vista was full of massive granite boulders.

As we neared the peak we had an excellent view of Cathedral Spires on the left and Little Devil's Tower on the right.
Notice all the dead trees behind Hans, the pine beetle is devastating Ponderosa Pines around here.

Our first glimpse of the Harney Peak Tower...the trail gets pretty steep at this point.

Taking a breather at the first sign of CCC craftmanship.
I'll show the stairs heading up through the rocks on our return when the light is better.

The CCC did a beautiful job integrating the fire tower into the mountain top.

It is perched right on the edge!

CCC-built stairs led us up through this granite ridge line.

The town of Custer is in the green meadow-like area behind Little Devil's Tower in the center.

Hi Hans!

Uneven granite steps descend to the dam and pumphouse,
which provided water for persons manning the fire tower years ago.

Lots of these little guys running around.

Hans is watching from the lookout tower as I clamber all over the rocks.
As far as I could tell the dam held only rain water, which was stagnant.

This high point is the center of the Precambrian rock in this area and provides a commanding view of the entire Black Hills.

Notice how the tower is built around existing boulders.

On our way down the light was better for photos of the stairs that took us up through the rocks to the tower.

Wonderful CCC engineering!

Our return trail took us right past the Cathedral Spires.

Cathedral Spires.

Neon green mosses covered the ground in a healthy section of forest.

We took the Devil's Tower spur trail knowing that it was supposed to be "steep and rocky"...
and discovered that was accurate!
This is part of the trail!

Some parts were wide enough for people to pass each other.

The views from Little Devil's Tower were just as impressive as those from Harney Peak...
in fact, Harney Peak Tower is the highest point in this photo!

Cathedral Spires from the top of Devil's Tower.

Descending Little Devil's Tower.

Some info on the removal of dead trees...

This was a fabulous day on the trail, and yes, there were plenty of others out there with us on a beautiful summertime Thursday, but our early start did make a difference because the parking lot was overflowing by the time we finished. Definitely worth the crowds!

The End!

Out and About in Hot Springs, SD

Our first stopover in South Dakota was five nights in Hot Springs, a small town known as the gateway to the Black Hills. Hot Springs is the site of many springs, though they are not necessarily hot. The most famous spring, and the oldest attraction in the Black Hills, is Evans Plunge, an 87 degree spring-fed pool, first commercialized in 1890.

We stayed at a small private RV park, Kemo Sabay, just a mile North of town. The park is extremely rustic, but very peaceful and it suited our needs just fine.

We did some town walking one day among the many historical buildings, many made from native sandstone and dating back to the early 1890's.

Some well preserved old homes sit atop the bluff overlooking downtown.

Opened in 1907 as the Battle Mountain Sanitarium, this beautiful, historic sandstone building is now a VA hospital.

Downtown Hot Springs.

Fall River walking path through town.

Our arrival in South Dakota coincided with a mini heat wave between rain storms, so we found a local swimming hole, Cascade Falls, for a cool down. This multi-level, multi-depth falls and pools with 67 degree crystal clear water was just the ticket for a refreshing, fun cool down.

We shared the cascade with a few families since it was a Saturday.
There is a restroom and several picnic tables at the falls and we were impressed by how clean it all was.

The place where Hans was sitting in the photo above is upstream to the right of the two people sitting in this photo.
The pool in front of these people is at least 10 feet deep.

Another day we visited Angostura Recreation Area, a reservoir just south of town that has camping (beautiful sites, some with electric hookups) and water sports as well as a nine hole disc golf course.

This was a relatively easy and wide open disc golf course, though there was the danger of hitting some poison oak
if your disc went too far off course in some spots.

This nest was exposed by the mower.

Great views on this course.
With all the rain lately the mosquito's are coming out even in the grassy areas...Hans is whacking them in this shot!

There are some nice beaches along Angostura Reservoir.

We saw this guy on the way out and stopped to put him off the road.

No, it's not a snapping turtle!

On our last day we woke up to a heavy, steady rain and thunderstorm for a couple of hours. Once we deemed it dry enough we ventured out, back to Wind Cave National Park for another hike, hopefully this one would be free of streams without bridges! Just inside the South entrance to the park, East Bison Flats Trail mostly stays up on ridges, offering expansive views and potential for wildlife sightings. (And only a little poison oak but we came prepared this time in long pants.)

That's the trail after we've already walked through. It has barely been used this spring!
Fortunately we were able to follow posts every few hundred feet to keep us on track.

We would follow the ridge ahead to the high point on the left.

When we reached the end of the bluff we were treated to a group of bison just hanging out
grazing and resting and rolling and just being bison!
The perfect spot for lunchtime entertainment!

We loved watching these big guys roll in their red dirt wallows!

You handsome red devil you!

Rolling in the grass feels good too!

That's it for Hot Springs, tomorrow we make tracks to Custer. We hope you come along for the ride!

Rosie loved checking out all the old farm equipment lying around the RV park.

A Day at Wind Cave National Park

One of the things we are most looking forward to in our ramble across the Black Hills of South Dakota is seeing a lot of wildlife...we were able to fulfill that desire almost immediately after entering Wind Cave National Park! Located just 10 miles north of our current home base in Hot Springs, SD, Wind Cave has not only a cave, but also herds of bison, elk and pronghorn roaming over 28,000 acres of rolling grasslands and pine forest.

Wind cave became our 8th National Park in 1903. In 1913, 14 bison were reintroduced to the park, today the herd numbers about 350, which is the optimum number for the size of the park. Another endangered species, the black-footed ferret, was also reintroduced in the park, as a balance to the large prairie dog population.

Moments after driving in to Wind Cave National Park we encountered dozens of bison lounging on the hillsides.

These two were eyeing each other warily.

Looks like the guy on the left did  a face plant in the mud!

After a while we tore ourselves away from the bison and drove to the Centennial trail head hoping to do a 4.75 mile loop hike. We started the loop on the Lookout Point trail, but soon came to a creek without a bridge. Though we continued on, improvising bridges along the way, eventually we came to such a large, dense patch of poison oak (and we weren't wearing long pants) that we had to turn back. We still ended up with a gorgeous 3 mile loop hike.

We traversed emerald green creek bottom meadows lined with rugged stone cliffs.

Bison contribute to the plant life...

Our sole animal sighting on this trail.

The Centennial trail had many good bridges but the Lookout Point trail was lacking several.
Often the logs were rotting in place so crossing them was perilous.

Testing a rotting log before placing ones faith on it.

Mountain lion would be the only predator of bison here, though old age could have taken this one as well.

We had to turn around soon after this photo was taken. Though we had a good bridge over the creek,
the poison oak was thick on the other side, not a good match for our bare legs.

Since our longer hike was thwarted by poison oak we continued our drive through the park looking for a short trail for some more exercise and views. The Rankin Ridge one mile loop satisfied those requirements easily. Though the fire lookout tower atop the ridge is no longer in use, the views for the casual hiker are magnificent.

Looking East over the vast green expanse of the Black Hills.

Next stop, the Wind Cave National Park visitor center. Here you can learn about the flora and fauna and cave system in the park and choose from five different ranger-guided cave tours. Though the national park entrance is free, cave tours come with a price, and only Access or Senior passes offer discounts. Three of the tours are first come, first served, the Candlelight and Wild Cave tours require reservations.

We had read that there can be long waits for cave tours so we weren't really expecting to get on one since it was mid afternoon on a Sunday, but the next available tour, the Fairgrounds Route, had room so we paid our $12 each and joined a group totaling 40 persons.

Wind Cave is extensive, about 140 miles of passageways have been discovered, and barometric wind studies estimate that only five percent of the total cave has been discovered. The tours cover only eight miles of the cave. Our tour covered 2/3 of a mile, with 450 stairs and took about 1.5 hours. Tours are very slow going as the cement walkways are narrow and the ranger has to go slow to make sure no one wanders off on a different path.

Making our way down one of many sections of steps into the bowels of the cave.

In the midsection of the cave we saw huge sections of Boxwork Formations,
thin, honeycomb-shaped structures of calcite that protrude from the walls and ceiling.

A ceiling covered in Boxwork.

After the tour we walked to the Natural Entrance to see the feature that led to the discovery of the cave. This small hole, about 8" x 10", caused a whistling noise leading two brothers to it and blowing the hat off one of them. The wind is caused by differences between atmospheric pressures in the cave and outside.

My hand is in the photo for size reference, but indeed, I could feel the wind blowing out of the hole!

As we neared the exit of the national park we were treated to a bison jam!

There were lots of cute little youngsters around!

What a magnificent looking beast!

The End!