Photo Blog with Waterfalls, Hiking, Outdoors, and other Adventures
The Needles Highway (SD-87) is a 14-mile scenic drive through some of the best scenery in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is also part of the larger double-loop Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway. This is by no means an exhaustive guide to the road – just some photos I took during my adventure. Less … Read more
After getting skunked on my morning run across the Needles Highway and then dilly-dallying with breakfast and laundry watching some clouds grow in the sky, I finally said “screw it!” and drove up to Sylvan Lake to the Trail #9 trail head for Black Elk Peak. The clouds continued to build as I watched from … Read more
Started the morning attempting to drive across the Needles Highway from east to west but it was closed off at the intersection with America Center Road. I didn’t expect that so no backup plan, and decided to head into the city of Custer to come up with a new plan. While cruising down the main … Read more
Camped at Custer State Park – Game Lodge Campground last night. The sites are a little wonky but overall it’s a nice spot with some of the only foliage changes I have seen in the area. Bonus they have hot showers even this late in the season. I stayed at site 52E which was the … Read more
The Scenic Tour of Jewel Cave National Monument explores deeper into the cave than the short Discovery Tour which I also joined this morning by mistake. Prepare yourself to traverse up & down over 730 stairs through a 1/2 mile loop that descends several hundred feet. After starting again at the Target Room we immediately … Read more
Due to my scheduling blunders I had a break for lunch and to strategize on how to use my time for the remaining daylight hours. There are a some hiking trails in the monument that look pretty interesting, but as I sat in the shady forest eating my sandwich the ominous clouds rolled in across … Read more
I was late arriving to the Rapid City area last night but found open sites at the Sheridan Lake South Shore Campground. Temperatures were pretty warm for the season and I only had one neighbor nearby who were quiet which made for some peaceful sleep. Unfortunately I couldn’t see anything when I got there and … Read more
Stopped for fuel and snacks in Wall, South Dakota. Doing my best to avoid tourist traps but this place is inevitable. First stop unintentionally was the Wall Drug 80ft tall dinosaur that is right behind the Sinclair gas station (their logo/mascot is a big dinosaur so that makes some sense). Decided it was time for … Read more
After spending entirely too much time getting supplies and eating dinner in Sioux Falls, I had to scramble a bit to find accommodations for the evening. Based on where I was heading next, and due to some other parks having started closing campgrounds for the season now, I found a site at Lake Vermillion State … Read more
Today seems like “do everything interesting in Garretson, South Dakota” day but it wasn’t really by plan. As it often happens, I was freestyle cruising Google Maps and came across a couple parks not far away from camp. So I headed just a couple miles down the road and first stopped at Split Rock Park. … Read more