Buffalo Herd (4 posts today, don't miss any!)

View from Little Devil's Tower

Tom on Little Devil's Tower

2 for 1

Saturday
The Black Hills are still scorching, but at least it’s a little cooler in the hills. After driving into the middle of BFE yesterday to find a campsite, we were shocked to find that apparently there were 8 other people that knew about it so it was filled. We camped in a clearing along a creek just up the road, so everything worked out. This morning we got up early (thanks Tom) again and decided to take a quick hike. The trail went on longer than we thought but it worked out great because it actually led to the top of Castle Peak, one of the highest around. The last part of the trail was a lot steeper than we had anticipated but the view was great; Castle Peak is one of the tallest in the Black Hills. As an added bonus, it’s an old mining area so there were old mine shafts (filled in, don’t worry Mom) around there.

Now we are in Custer, right on the edge of Custer State Park. Hardy should be here this evening and then we’ll do some stuff around here for the next couple of days. We plan on going into Custer SP to see some things (buffalo, reenactments) and check out the rest of the area. If the fireworks are still on, we’ll be at Mt. Rushmore on the 3rd, but we’re still uncertain if those will happen.

Sunday/Monday
Haven’t had internet connection in a couple of days so you get two posts on this one. I decided to post a few extra pictures. We’ve been having a pretty darn good time out here. We’re staying put at the campground we are at until we leave for Wyoming; it just turns out to be easier than trying to find someplace each night and repacking all of our stuff and yadda yadda.

Saturday evening we had some hail. Just little dime size pieces of hail. Not much really. Unless of course you take into account they all stuck together to make golf ball size chunks of ice flying at you. So that was nice. We hung out around the campfire on Saturday; Hardy’s here now so campfire stories are definitely entertaining.

Yesterday we hiked to the top of Little Devil’s Tower early in the morning (well, not real early, but we beat most of the heat). Little Devil’s Tower (in Badlands National Forest, or maybe Custer State Park, it’s right on the border) is considered a strenuous hike and let me tell you, those loooonnnnggggg stretches of uphill climb definitely felt strenuous. When you near the top you have to climb up and over chunks of granite (yes Mom, you would be nervous so I didn’t put up a picture of that for you to see). It was all worth it though because the view from the top was absolutely fantastic. You could see for miles in all directions, truly a unique little spot.

After the hike, we drove south through Custer State Park (including a few rock tunnels) to Wind Cave National Park to take a tour. That was a neat little excursion, especially when they turn off the lights and plunge you into complete darkness. With absolutely no light your eyes will never adjust to the light and that feeling of blindness with your eyes open is a very eerie feeling.

On our drive back to camp we drove through the part of Custer that just burned a few days ago. We also had an opportunity to see a large herd of buffalo (a few hundred), some pronghorns, and tons of little prairie dogs. Today we’ve already been to Crazy Horse Monument (quite an ambitious project…check back in 100 years when it’s finished) and are going to go swimming this afternoon. Then it’s off to the Badlands to do a short hike and drive back to camp at dusk. Tomorrow the plan is to watch the fireworks, but we may have to get there earlier than we had hoped and just hang out; sounds like its pretty busy all day there so I guess we’ll play it by ear. Enjoy the pics: the one on this post is from the top of our Castle Peak hike the other day, Tom is at the top of Little Devil’s Tower, the view out from the peak, and then there’s some of the buffalo.