We did Harney/B.Elk in under 3 hours, but that was summer conditions. Give yourself a full set of hours to slug your way through snow/ice. Good Luck!
For Buffalo, they'll only be at Custer.
OT: Black Hills area
- Thread starter PrtLng Lion
- Start date
For Buffalo, they'll only be at Custer.
Black Elk Peak Trail was great too. We did up and back in 3.5 hrs but hung out for awhile at the top. The snow and slippery made it much more of a challenge. They must have had about 6" on the mountain- way more than Rapid City got. Absolutely AMAZING view all around. Definitely one of my top panorama views ever, along with Monserrat in Spain and Mt Healy in Alaska (On3 not letting me post pics now, files too large...)
I had no idea that there were so many tourist things on the route 16 between Rapid City and Rushmore. We stopped at Rushmore Candy Co.-- holy moley! We walked out with bacon chocolate soda and chocolate covered chilis.
Excellent! I found that if you cut out your photo, paste it on a blank doc - like word or ppoint, and then crop it/shrink it, you can reduce the size enough to then do a copy/paste. All the pics that i put up were cropped that way to they would fit - otherwise, a straight 2 or 3 MB file for pic wont fit. Glad you also didn't get clouded in. The wind at Harney must have been powerful!
Yesterday- weather was fantastic. Sunny and high 30's.
Devil's Tower: amazing. Hiked to to spot at the base where the rock climbers ascend, and saw two deer right there.
Also hiked to Devil's Bathtub in Spearfish Canyon.
Saw Badlands at sunset- nothing like it.
Today-- snowy, cold, and windy.
Bison tongue-cleaned my rental car in Custer State Park. We were totally surrounded by them at one point-- slightly unnerving but amazing nonetheless.
Wanted to go hiking up Cathedral Spires trails but multiple signs saying Rt 87 was closed forced me to re-think.
Hiked up Bear Butte-- the coldest windchills we felt the entire trip. Amazing view and not a hike for the faint of heart. Very close to the edge of some fairly serious dropoffs.
Devil's Tower: amazing. Hiked to to spot at the base where the rock climbers ascend, and saw two deer right there.
Also hiked to Devil's Bathtub in Spearfish Canyon.
Saw Badlands at sunset- nothing like it.
Today-- snowy, cold, and windy.
Bison tongue-cleaned my rental car in Custer State Park. We were totally surrounded by them at one point-- slightly unnerving but amazing nonetheless.
Wanted to go hiking up Cathedral Spires trails but multiple signs saying Rt 87 was closed forced me to re-think.
Hiked up Bear Butte-- the coldest windchills we felt the entire trip. Amazing view and not a hike for the faint of heart. Very close to the edge of some fairly serious dropoffs.
My son and I LOVED our visit to Rapid City area. Would come back again in a heartbeat. Guy in the elevator asked where we were from and after I told him, asked what the heck we were doing here. A number of locals we met seem to not appreciate the area. I guess the grass is always greener elsewhere...
that's the kind of badlands photo that you can take to a professional, expand, and hang on a wall. So glad you got to see it. Now, you can be the expert to the next person whose never been! Props for doing Bear Butte - I would have hung out at the lodge w/ a spiked hot choco instead.
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