Cartographically challenged

Day 4 – Black Hills, South Dakota

Today was our first “let’s kick our butts day” of the trip.  We actually let ourselves sleep in until 5:30!  A wind storm rolled in last night, and we were both a little nervous, but the tent held up great.  We got to the Badlands at about 8:15 and got the gear together for our hike.  The main part of our hike was supposed to be the Castle Trail, which (we thought) was a five miles out, five miles back hike, with the opportunity to go off onto both the Medicine Root and Saddle Pass trails.  In total, it should have been about 11 miles.

The appropriately named Badlands

We started the hike, but within 20 feet, we had already lost the trail.  This requires some explanation.  The Badlands are the most appropriately named place I have ever visited (I guess Cape Town is a town on a Cape, but whatever).  As we were hiking, I tried to think of adjectives for describing the land.  Wasteland?  Not really, that’s too harsh.  Barren?  No, there are wildflowers, a variety of prairie grasses, a multitude of birds, insects, and we could even hear an owl.  And rattlesnakes, but more on that later (Mom, don’t worry, we’re fine).  It’s rugged, crusty, dry, severe…its bad.  But it’s also beautiful and amazing to see up close.  It seems so out of place; I can really understand the “moonscape” description Mr. Taves gave us before we left.  Try to picture open prairie that is all of a sudden interrupted by huge, jagged protrusions of rock for as far as you can see.  The rock formations, which come in all shapes and sizes are separated from each other by grasslands, rock mounds, small buttes, or maze-like canyons with thousands of small crevices.  Within the rock formations are bands of colors, showing the years of composition and deterioration.  We only saw it in the midday hours, but I would love to see it closer to sunrise and sunset; I am sure the color changes would be amazing.

The Castle trailhead.  We got "lost" just after the stairs ended.

Anyways, we began our adventure into the moonscape, and within 20 feet of the trailhead, we were already off the trail.  However, not realizing this we just kept on walking, going from wash to wash to gravel ridge thinking all of these were the path.  We began complaining almost instantly about how poorly marked this (non-existent) trail was, but yet, continued to venture ahead.  We zigged, we zagged, we backtracked.  We were never worried about getting lost since the path is surrounded on all sides by road, but we definitely did not go where we were going.  Eventually, we got to a point where the rocks ended and all that was in front of us was prairie.  While this might not seem like a problem, the frequent signs near the trailhead warning of rattlesnakes made us think otherwise.  Luckily, common sense prevailed and we decided not to brave the snake infested (in our mind) grassland.  We pulled out the map and the handheld GPS (yes, it took us that long), admitted defeat, and began to pick our way back towards the trailhead.  Then, like a beacon of hope, we saw a red trail marking post way off to our south.  Instead of heading out towards the east-southeast as the trail did, we instead blazed our own trail heading east-northeast.  Had we continued, we would have hit North Dakota before our original destination. 

Amy hiking through one of the less rocky parts of the trail. 

This adventure had taken us almost two hours.  Thinking that the path was 5 miles each way, we figured we had to be close to the end.  We hiked a bit further until we got to a sign confirming that we were… only a third of the way.  We pressed on into the face of a 30 mph wind, gusting up to 45 mph at times.  At least it kept things cooler.  It was also at this time that I heard a faint rattle off to our right.  I wasn’t sure what I had heard, so I stopped to listen for it again.  The snake obliged, probably wondering how dumb I must be for needing two warnings.  It wasn’t as loud as I had pictured from movies, but it was unmistakable.  We found it ironic that we encountered the snake only after we got back on the trail.

The incredible "castles" we encountered on our hike.

The scenery on the trail was amazing, seeming to change around every turn.  I hope the pictures will do it justice, although I don’t know how they could.  Finally, after 3 hours and 45 minutes of hiking, we made it to the other end of the trail.  We stopped and had some water and granola bars, preparing to reverse course, and take the 5 mile trail back to our car.  It was at this time we saw that it was actually 6 miles each way, not 5.  We made it the rest of the way without incident and under two hours, but the easy 10 mile hike we had expected turned into a 14 mile (give or take) adventure.

"Dead Man's Hand" - the enterance to Deadwood.

We left the park and took a scenic drive back towards camp, where we showered up and prepared to head to Deadwood for dinner.  I have always loved western movies and TV shows, with the HBO series Deadwood being one of my favorites.  So the trip there was nothing more than a guilty pleasure.  There is definitely plenty of history in the town.  Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Sherriff Seth Bullcok are all buried there.  You can see the saloon where Wild Bill was murdered and watch a reenactment of his trial.  It was also an incredibly important mining camp, leading to the development of much of western South Dakota.

Wild Bill's grave at sunset.

We had a very nice trip up there.  Our first stop was the Mt. Moriah cemetery, built on a hill overlooking town.  The two most famous residents are Wild Bill and Calamity Jane.  Bill was murdered, shot in the back, while playing cards in a Deadwood saloon called Saloon No. 10.  When he was shot, it he was holding 2 pair of Aces and Eights, which is now known as the “Dead Man’s Hand”.  Jane was a sort of sidekick for Bill, although with an equally colorful history, whose dying wish was to be buried next to Wild Bill.  Outside of the cemetery and ¼ mile up the hill is the burial site for Sheriff Seth Bullock, his wife, and daughter.  Sheriff bullock was the man responsible for taming the town when it was so out of control.  He was also a friend of Teddy Roosevelt and rode with him as part of the Rough riders.   The view from his grave was amazing, especially at sunset.

Sheriff Seth Bullock's grave, high on Mt. Moriah overlooking the town he helped to tame.

We came down from the cemetery and grabbed a bite to eat at “Deadwood Dick’s Loading Dock and Saloon” which was a combination restaurant, saloon, casino, hotel, and antique shop.  There was no printed menu; the waitress told you what they had (hot dog, burger, pulled pork, veggie wrap, steak).  But the food was fantastic.  After dinner we strolled down Main Street which is now just a row of casino/restaurant/saloons and tourist shops – not much to see.  But the trip to the cemetery (and the drive both ways) made it worth it.

The ride home took us through Sturgis, which was completely dead.  I’m assuming it was resting up for the big Harley rally they have every year.  As we drove south along I-90 towards Rapid City, we were able to see the fireworks from all the little towns we passed.   Tomorrow, we finally get to get out on our bikes.  We will be doing a short segment of the109 mile George P. Mickleson Bike Trail that runs from Deadwood in the north of the hills to Edgemont in the south.  This will be followed by a sunset train ride through the Black Hills on an old train from the 1880’s.  It will be a nice way to say goodbye to this area before we move on to Yellowstone.