Hiking in the Black Hills

Monday, 7/23 6:00am - Today is our last day in the Black Hills. We all enjoyed the area and are sad both our visit with my Dad and Gail and the area are coming to an end. This morning is crisp, refreshing and looks like we'll have another sunny day, at least to start with.

Yesterday was the day of animals. Yesterday morning, we had a relaxing start at the campsite and headed out just before 11am. We needed lunch and we discovered if we ordered a picnic from one of the Custer State Lodges it was much more reasonably priced then if we ate the same thing at the lodge. We ate our yummy picnic at a little picnic spot off the Needles Highway. We explored the Needles Highway the first day we were here but traveled from the other direction this time.

As we set off on the Needles an interesting critter ran out in front of us. After talking to some locals we have determined that it was a woodchuck.

After lunch we set out on a hike. This is where I'm proud of myself for being flexible. Going into this trip I really wanted to hike to Black Elk Peak but after the bike ride realized that it was important for everyone to be invested in the activity...or at least Lin to be. He knew I really wanted to hike so we compromised and found a shorter but equally scenic hike. In all honesty, the hike we did was probably more fun than the one I was thinking of since at the end we were literally climbing up and between rocks on the peak of a mountain. Of course, one can't keep everyone happy so we did have one unhappy hiker but I think on reflection he agrees that it provided amazing views and was mostly fun. Hopefully I have sparked the hiking bug in Aaron and Lin. Neither of them have had many experiences hiking to views like we had yesterday so I think future hikes will be an easier sell now.

We ventured out on the Cathedral Spires Trail which took us to the base of some amazing rock formations. We got to see some mountain goats walking around above us which was really cool. Aaron has an amazing eye for finding things and found a robins nest with baby robins up there as well.

Mountain Goats

Resting in among the spires.

We took a short jaunt on Trail #4 before branching off to the Little Devil's Tower trail.

The first part of the trail was uneventful and people coming down told us (warned us) about the amount of climbing in our future. I sort of shrugged it off but sure enough soon we were scaling rock on the top of the mountain. It might have scared me off if I knew what was at the top but I'm so glad we did it. Now I have more confidence in my ability. When we got to the very top we were rewarded with beautiful sweeping views of the whole area. We snapped some quick pictures before heading back down due to the strength of the wind up there. I didn't really feel like being blown off the mountain!

Going up!

Almost at the top with Black Elk Peak in the background.

Made it! Spires in the background.

Aidan standing strong against the wind.

Aaron finally decided to join us at the top. So glad he did!

Navigating our way back down.

Aaron made quick work of the decent. He wasn't happy because he wanted to go swimming in Sylvan Lake and it had started to drizzle. We made it back to the truck and headed to our next stop, Sylvan Lake. Aaron was finally happy and ran enthusiastically into the lake, stood there for under a minute and proceeded to run back out of the lake. It was too cold for him but at least he was finally happy. We walked around the "easy" lake path. I thought easy meant fairly level walking surface but we had to navigate more rocks and streams. It was a tad challenging since we had all changed into flip flops but we made it. The lake was beautiful but too crowded for my liking.

He was fully submerged but I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to catch that.

And he was out!

Beautiful Sylvan Lake

We headed back toward our more relaxed, less crowded area for dinner but made a quick detour to find the famous begging burros first. On the way, sharp eyed Aaron, pointed out a bald eagle nest to all of us that we had passed several times but the rest of us had never been able to find. There were two babies inside and we saw the parent fly off. We had success and found the burros! The boys (and Lin and I) had a fantastic time petting the friendly animals. We also saw some more pronghorns and of course some deer.

Why this mirror makes an excellent head scratcher.

Me and a burro

Mom and Baby Burro Photo credit: Lin

Back to camp for dinner courtesy of Gail. We were hungry after all our hiking and her homemade spaghetti sauce was delicious. We had a campfire and I was given some family heirlooms to bring back to Gainesville with me while the boys got early/late birthday gifts. For my birthday I got a canvas print of some interesting family history including a picture and article that I had never seen. All in all another fun day in the Black Hills.

One more item on our must see list with one more day left.