July 27-28, 2009 Black Hills Trip
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Left the badlands around 10a.m. on the 27th for Rapid City, SD planning on going to a coffee shop to cool off and use wi-fi to find a free campground somewhere in the black hills. Got on the road out of Rapid City and headed towards Harney Peak. Got hit by some wicked downpours right into the black hills with a few close CG's. In fact I think while I was driving by mount rushmore a bolt hit it. Pulled into Rushmore and said screw it after I saw the sign that said it was $10 for parking. So I pressed on, soon realizing I need gas. I get to hill city and its still pouring. As soon as I pull into the gas station it starts hailing and doesn't stop for 15 minutes, so I just sat in my car. I get gas and notice a big lowering under the base when I drive away, so of course stupid me tries to follow it. It was pretty low, probably 300 feet above the valley floor, but it was clearly not rotating. By the way you could see Harney Peak from the badlands.
After giving up on that storm I get on the right road to Harney Peak, HWY 87. This is one of the craziest roads I've been on, tons of switchbacks and one lane tunnels and whatnot.
I get to the Cathedral spires trailhead, thinking it met up with the Harney Peak trail indicated by the lines connecting on the map. Apparently it was not the right trail to Harney Peak lol. So I hiked 2 miles for nothing. I did take one image of the spires though.
I Backtrack to the entrance of Custer State Park where Sylvan lake is and I see a sign for the trailhead. I didn't realize it was a ways from the parking lot. I decided to wait until the next day to Hike it, since It was 5pm and the sun set at 8:30pm. Instead I just messed around at Slyvan lake, a really cool area. Tons of rocks to climb up and explore. I did this for probably two hours.
This was really a cool view, keep in mind these are at 10mm, so everything is much bigger and closer that it seems. Those rock towers are probably 300 to 500 feet tall.
The Lake is to my left, I'm trying to find a really good view from above. I really wanted to go climb one of those tall ones in the center, but there was no way you could. They had shear cliffs up all sides. Climbing up here was a little difficult with my new camera bag, its just a little heavier than the old one. It was probably worse getting down though. I think it did a little damage to my bag from banging against the rock now and then.
I think this is the same location looking to my left at the lake.
After a while I noticed you could see the tower on top of Harney Peak, this is at 145mm. That is the lookout tower on top of the peak. That is 4 miles away on a trail, so probably 2.5 or 3 miles straight distance.
The lake was really cool, I wish I would have swam in it, but at this time it was only 60 something outside, pretty chilly. I was wearing my light sweatshirt the entire time in the black hills. Now I am heading back to the car and there is a buck just chilling probably 20 yards away and this idiot kid runs after it, luckily I caught it though, it is blurry.
Now I've got to figure out where to stay the night. I pondered staying at a campground, but $18 didn't sound like fun for a cold and possibly rainy night. I started to make my way back to Rapid City figuring I could just sleep in a hotel parking lot or something. I stop at hotel and get on the wi-fi for a bit, then decide to find a spot for the night and sleep in my car. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, I just put up a blanket and rolled up the windows to clamp it down to block the light and it worked pretty good. But this was much better than the next night. I should have been on my way to the hike at 4a.m. since they just had a lot of rain and it was going to be pretty cold, so fog possibly. I didn't leave the parking lot until 9a.m. lol. So the sun had been up for almost 4 hours.
I planned on hiking Harney in the morning then leave for Glendo Reservoir in Wyoming, about a 4 hour drive. Harney Peak was a fairly easy 3 hour hike round trip, well 4 if you count the hour on the summit. It was pretty cool up there however there were too many people. Probably 50 to 70 people crowed the summit. So I Hiked maybe an eighth of a mile north of the peak.
The top was nothing but crazy views in all directions. All the rock formations sticking up and whatnot. This shot is of the opposite side of the Cathedral Spires hike I did the previous day. I just realized the horizon is crooked on that last two images. Oh well.
Some Guy. I think I was on the tower for this one.
In the lookout tower now. There were a bunch of rooms in there, I'm pretty sure it's an abandoned fire lookout so some people lived up here. There was a pumpstation and a little dam to keep rain water in. It was pretty cool.
This one is cropped from 300mm. Noticed the Mountain goat.
One more shot on the way down.
The hike back took much longer for some reason, I have no idea why. I'd recommend this climb if you start really early, maybe just before sunrise, to avoid the crowds. There were a few cool scenes down in the wooded areas along the trail.
Got back to the car and ate some lunch. Soon left for Newcastle, WY.
Continue to page 4, the Snowy rnage
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