Black Hills Landscape

The mountains of the Black Hills in South Dakota are overwhelming.

Black Hills Camping

I returned late last night from four days of camping in the Black Hills of South Dakota. (I know: totally the wrong time for me to go away, but the trip was already part of the church calendar, and I had a group of guys that wanted to go, so I went.) We had a good time, a great time. And, for those in our group who were nervous about leaving home, and going out of town (and going SO FAR out of town) it was quite an experience.

We went to Mount Rushmore (of course) we hiked on mountain paths, we saw bears, and wolves, and big horn sheep (safely within thier pens...), we toured the Air and Space Museum at the Ellsworth Air Force Base, we walked around the Badlands, we ate good food, and had, as I said, a great time.

Take Me to the River

These images were pulled up from the icy waters of Rapid Creek, in South Dakota.

Camping in the Black Hills of South Dakota

If you're a regular reader of this blog then you may have noticed a drastic drop off in my posts last week.  I was camping in the Black Hills of South Dakota with a group of boys and young men from Salvation Army units in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa.  I didn't have regular connection to the internets - and in those few moments when I did, I was busy making sure the boys in my care were safe and not being run over by cars or bison.  We spent the week climbing mountain trails, fishing,looking at snakes and bears and crocodiles and mammoth bones, going down into dark caves, visiting national monuments, playing games, observing the stars, panning for gold, singing songs, and etc...

One afternoon some of the boys hiked up Harney Peak (the highest natural point in South Dakota).  I asked one of them about it afterwards.  "Did you go all the way up to the top?"

To which he answered, "Yeah, we went PAST it.  We didn't know where the top was so we just kept going."  That must have been some hike.

I was with a group of younger boys who didn't think they could manage the hike to the top.  We hiked around Sylvan Lake (the site of much goings on in the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets).  It was here that my boys caught trout with their bare hands.  True story.  As we were walking along the lake shore, a couple of guys from the DNR pulled up with a big tanker truck full of fish to restock the lake.  They pumped over 1,500 trout into the water.  Some of them didn't immediately get into the water, so my boys asked if they could help. We grabbed the fish and tossed them into the the lake.

The photo below was taken from our campground on Rapid Creek (just outside of Rapid City).

South Dakota Sunset by Jeff Carter on 500px

Wolf Spider

I found this beauty earlier today as I was pulling out some supplies for my class.  It's a wolf spider (i'm pretty sure it is...) but I couldn't be specific about what species of wolf spider (there are about 125 different wolf spider species in North America alone.)

The wolf spider does not build a web to trap its prey.  Instead it hunts at night - rather like a wolf.  They tend to be solitary spiders -unlike wolves- often found, as this one was, near doors and windows.

Their bite, while painful, is not likely to be fatal.

Rapid Creek

I have been posting some of the photographs I took during a recent camping trip in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Our campground is situated along Rapid Creek - just outside of Rapid City.




The Waters of Rapid Creek from jeff carter on Vimeo.

A little ways down from the camp are the "Thunderhead Falls" - but they weren't open yet this season.  I'll have to visit them next time.

A Few More Photos from the Black Hills

Here are a few more of the pictures I took during my recent camping trip in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

This was a timed exposure (6 seconds) taken at about 10:30 pm.



























The skies were clouded for much of our trip - though the moon did peek through briefly one evening.



























The waters of the Pactola Reservoir are especially clear.  If I knew how to Scuba Dive I would swim down to see the old mining town that is submerged beneath its waters.

Camping in the Black Hills, South Dakota

I had been away for several days - camping in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  I came home yesterday smelling like campfire smoke and sweat.

I'm showered and refreshed now and ready again for regular posting here on the blog.  To start here are a few of the photos I took during my trip.

The first couple of days it was cold and rainy and windy.  And did I say, cold?  I had put up my little tent. But a friend of mine who brought out his pop-up camper let me crash his hospitality.  I stayed in the warm and dry.

We took a trip out to the Mt. Moriah cemetery and saw the graves of WIld Bill HIckok and Calamity Jane and Potato Creek Johnny.  We also visited the gold mine at Lead.  We fished - sorta'... I didn't get completely skunked. I caught a fish (the fact that it was barely bigger than the lure doesn't need to be brought up).  Fortunately others were better able to catch fish - and we ate some very tasty rainbow trout.

It's a bit of drive out there (just over 10 hours from here) but so much fun once you've arrived.