Black Hills, SD
Our campground near Hill City, SD
On our long walk up to Mt. Rushmore (see the journal) we spotted these relatively rare mountain goats.
This does NOT look like a good day for fireworks. You should be able to see the mountain from here.
Ahhh... there is hope. In mid-afternoon the mountain looked like it might appear out of the fog.
Sadly, the rain and fog continued, so we left.  We were the smart ones from what we heard.
The next day we chose to take a hike up to Mt. Rushmore in the Black Elk Wilderness.
As you can clearly see the weather was MUCH better on this day.
In this picture you can just see park staff lowering debris from the prior night's fireworks... in the fog.
We stayed at Game Lodge Campground in Custer State Park.  Very nice place.
This is the State Game Lodge, which was the summer white house for Calvin Cooledge.
Early one morning we took the Wildlife Loop Trail around Custer SP to see... well wildlife.
For much of the ride we didn't see much wildlife until we came across this prong horn antelope.
This buffalo was just standing around looking large.
We encountered a buffalo traffic jam along the drive.
Not all of the buffalo eat constantly.  This one was posing for pictures.
We visited the Crazy Horse Memorial
The white model on the left is what the memorial will look like someday in the distant future.
Here you can see what must be done to finish the sculpture. LOT and lots of work to do.
On the Needles Highway in Custer SP you get up close and personal with the structures.
It is clear why they call them Needles.
We hiked the trail to Harney Peak, surprising a marmot along the way.
There were many flowers in bloom including this wood lily.
We took a brief moment along the hike to enjoy the view.
You can see our destination in the distance.
There were great views even before we reached the peak.
The Lookout was built by the CCC and is on the Register of Historical Places.
A fellow hiker offered to snap our picture at the Lookout.
Quite a few people take this popular hike and some venture further out on the peak.
This is the trail leading to the peak.
On the way back down the mountain we took a different and very scenic route.
Towards the bottom we encountered this nice meadow.
The Harney Peak trailhead is at the scenic  Sylvan Lake.
After our stay in Custer SP we moved on to Elkhorn Ridge RV Resort in Spearfish.
Elkhorn Ridge is a relatively new park and one of the few we have found with bronze sculptures.
This one is great.  You can just imagine a real life situation like that.
While in the Black Hills we often had thunderstorms roll through the area.
We drove the beautiful Spearfish Creek Canyon searching for 'fishy' water.
We found some 'small fishy' water.  Here I am reeling in a huge 5 inch trout.
Well if the fish weren't large at least the stream and flowers were nice.
Another day we drove to the Badlands Nat'l Park.  Bighorn sheep have been reintroduced to the park
The bighorn sheep didn't seem to be bothered by the close proximity of cars and visitors.
It was amazing to see them deftly walk along sheer cliffs.
Now that I look at it I seem to be pretty close to that edge.
The Badlands are beautiful and more interesting than we expected.

Mt. Rushmore
Custer State Park
Spearfish, SD
Layers of sediment over millions of years form colorful striping on the mountains.
Another picture of the mountains with great afternoon light.
We visited the D.C Booth Historic Nat'l Fish Hatchery in downtown Spearfish.
In the days before roads they used these train cars to transport fish to remote lakes.
The museum at the hatchery.
A bronze of historic hatchery workers.
Susan resting at the trailhead where we took a ride along the George S. Mickelson Trail.
It was a nice ride with streams and this tunnel through a mountain.
Another nice place along the bike ride.
On our last weekend in Spearfish we enjoyed the annual "Festival in the Park"
It is a well-attended event with lots of art and food for sale.
This stage was the venue for some local talent and a story teller.