Our Black Hills News

The weather has been extremely wet this summer around the Black Hills.  The normal low humidity hasn't been so normal, even the mosquitoes notice the change and have showed up this summer.  At our campground below, the weather looks good enough on that day.  Our rig Penelope is parked under the larger trees near the camp wash-house.

A first this summer was the trip up the famous Needles Highway, the picture below is the famous Needle Eye at the narrowest tunnel near Sylvan Lake.  The one little fella to the right is trying to come back down on his seat after climbing up on the Needle.  Not a position we want to be in!

Another first for us was the trip up the hill to Dinosaur Park.  We always see the Barosaurus over looking the city from up atop at Dinosaur Park.  This is the view of Rapid City from the park, looking to the west toward the Black Hills.

Gari looks out to the east toward downtown Rapid City from Dinosaur Park.  The Dinosaur Park Visitor's Center building is seen directly below.  They had a surprisingly good selection of souvenirs in the shop.  Many were paleontology and geology related to the Black Hills area.

The big guy at top is the dinosaur that we see below in town.  The dinosaur in the foreground looks more like the extinct Giant Green Kangaroo.

 We can see some of the taller downtown buildings to the right in the picture below.

Gari secures Romeo up top in the park area at the Petrified Forest trailhead. We walked about 3 miles and didn't see any petrified wood, we think it was a trick!  Notice the kayaks are loaded and ready to go should we find ourselves at a fishing hole.

Steve casts out his fly rig below in Spring Creek up in the Black Hills.  This was one of the days that it didn't rain.

A promising looking pool below also along Spring Creek at another stop.

Steve tries his fly fishing luck in the last pool of the day below.

We got up very early to hit the good weather part of the day at the Belle Fourche Reservoir.  This is a large lake of over 8,000 acres and 58 miles of shoreline.  We probably paddled two miles or so that day.  Reportedly there is good Walleye fishing up there... we got skunked that day :(

Another fine day we rode out to Deefield Lake.  This is a large lake as well with over 435 acres of water.  There is very good trout fishing here, but we only caught Black Bass and Bluegill that day.  The thing we like about Deerfield is that it is a little farther into the Black Hills and therefore less crowded.  Motorized boat traffic is limited to 5 mph on the lake so that is great for kayakers like us.

Our Sioux Falls friends Suds and Ruthie came into camp last week.  Ruthie and Gari help Suds get his CanAm and Razor out of the cargo trailer.  This year marks Suds' 59th consecutive Sturgis Motorcycle Rally!

A small herd of Bison at Custer State Park west entrance.  This is where we saw our first Pronghorn Antelope over 6 years ago.  We saw it at a distance and didn't know what it was.

A herd of mama Bison with bebes

A portrait at Needles Highway, the Cathedral Spires in the back.

Mount Rushmore from quite a distance.

A Red Dog bebe in Custer SP.

And lastly Pactola Lake.  This is the deepest lake in the Black hills and also covers 800 acres.  There is lots of water sport and water skiing activity on Pactola so that presents a challenge to fishermen, especially those in kayaks!  Gari paddles to our trout spot on Pactola.

Steve tries to lift a nice Rainbow Trout.  Those things are slippery!

Now he has it.  A quick picture before release.

Gari paddles by the big rock by the spillway. This rock is a little island in the lake.  We love the American Flag up on top!