Back in July we had an amazing "peak experience" when we hiked to the summit of the highest mountain in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak (photos here). So in South Dakota, we decided to do the same. The highest peak in the state at 7242', Harney Peak is also the highest point in the US east of the Rocky Mountains. Although it's quite a bit shorter than Wheeler, which towers at 13167' in altitude, the hike to the summit of Harney was challenging nonetheless. Here's a blurb Barry found online: There are multiple routes to the summit, the easiest being the southern approach from Sylvan Lake. This route follows the Harney Peak-Sylvan Lake Trail for 3.5 miles one way, and 1,100 feet of elevation gain. I would rate this hike as easy to moderate. This trail receives heavy use. So naturally, we did the northern approach! As promised, it was lightly traveled; in fact, we saw no other hikers on this route in either direction. There were quite a few folks at the peak who had done the well-traveled and easier hike from Sylvan Lake, which made us very happy that we'd taken "the road less traveled." We appreciate our solitude when hiking, and the views were indeed scenic. Though we carefully avoided showing other people in our photos, there was a surprising number of other hikers (and a couple of dogs!) at the summit. We heard some German being spoken and realized that at least some of our fellow hikers were Europeans. This makes sense as they do tend to be in better physical condition than folks in the US (sadly). And with it being a fall weekday, younger, more fit Americans were likely to be at work or school. But as I mentioned earlier, all the other hikers came up from Sylvan Lake, so we had the north #9 trail to ourselves in both directions -- perfect. The views from the summit were amazing, though photos never seem to do these kinds of views justice. You miss so much when it's not in 3-D nor 360-degrees worth! But here are a few shots anyway. Notice in the photos above all the defoliated trees. These are not deciduous trees that have shed their leaves but pines that have died due to the incredible scourge of the mountain pine beetle. Signs of their destructiveness were all around us during our time in the South Dakota Black Hills. It was so sad and sickening. According to this website from a South Dakota congresswoman, one third of National Forest System land in the Black Hills has been lost to these insects, and the Black Elk Wilderness is the hardest hit. I plan on writing some letters after this trip. But back to our hike. The five-mile return trip was quite a bit faster than the trip up, but still provided challenges with rocks and steep areas. We are always glad to have our hiking poles along; they are especially helpful when descending and enable us to go quite a bit faster than we could otherwise, while taking weight off of and protecting our knees. Please stay tuned...there will be from South Dakota in the days to come....
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On our second full day in North Dakota, we returned to Theodore Roosevelt NP for a long hike. One very nice thing about this national park (and probably others; I can't recall) is that once you pay for your permit, it's good for seven days. Since we'd paid our $10/car to do the loop drive the day before, we only had to show our receipt to get back into the park to hike. An excellent deal if you're staying in the area for awhile! Barry planned a loop hike for us comprised of four different trails -- a total of 11.4 miles. I generally prefer hikes in the 7-8 mile range as my feet tend to get very sore on the longer hikes, but I do love a loop hike (rather than an out and back), so I agreed. The trails on this hike were rated moderate, so not too steep. Driving to the trailhead, we were very lucky to spy this huge American Bison right by the side of the road. Kinda scary, but we were in a car -- don't think I'd want to see him this close while hiking! It was cool and overcast starting out but cleared and warmed up as we went so was a nice day for hiking. Our first trail was the Jones Creek. What this hike lacked in climbs, it made up for in creek crossings. Some were more challenging than others. I loved this series of photos Barry took of me negotiating this one. I could never have made it without my hiking poles! We saw a lot of wildlife on this hike, including a Mountain Bluebird and Cedar Waxwings. There were many other birds we just couldn't identify as they'd fly away too fast. And the scenery was as pretty as the birds.... Our second trail was the Lower Talkington. This trail boasted some beautiful rock formations along the way. Our third connecting trail was the Badlands Spur. We got a little confused on this short trail by multiple intersecting trails, some of which were probably bison and/or wild horse trails (we did see a lot of poop!) As a result, we did a little backtracking. We'd had the same problem on the previous trail, thus increasing our total mileage for the day to around 12. I for one was very glad to reach our final trail, the 3.5-mile Lower Paddock Creek Trail. My feet were getting pretty tired and sore by this point. This trail had the most creek crossings of the day, and some were quite wide (and deep), requiring us to travel a bit up or down the creek looking for the narrowest place to cross. Much to my amazement, we managed to get across all of them without getting our feet wet. I was glad of that as they were not clear creeks babbling over rocks but murky water with muddy bottoms. Apparently this part of the state had had a bit of rain recently; I expect under normally dry North Dakota conditions these creeks are much less full. This was a very beautiful trail. I love these photos of Barry enjoying the scenery and the solitude. We weren't sure if we'd experience that solitude now that we're back in the US. In Belize, we were often the only people at a national park all day long. We came close to that on these trails and only saw three other hikers all day, two of them on this trail. On this trail we saw our first wild horses and lots of prairie dogs in a large "prairie dog town". So cute! At last we reached the end of the trail and our hike. You can tell by the long afternoon shadow that this was a long hike! On the way out of the park we encountered this adorable wild turkey family crossing the road. Once she (?) was sure we were going to stop for them, the adult very carefully led the "teenagers" across. Reward meal.After twelve miles of hiking, we treated ourselves to an excellent, and very hearty, Mexican dinner at Don Pedro's, right across the street from our La Quinta in Dickinson. Despite big appetites, the portions were so huge we still brought home enough for lunch the next day!
After blogging frequently during our time living in Ambergris Caye, Belize, we needed a break. Blogging had ceased being fun and had become more of a job. In addition to the blog, I received many emails from people with questions about Belize and was a frequent contributor to Belize forums. It was time to take a vacation from our "vacation"! So, we took a blogging hiatus when we moved back to the US from Belize in March. But we haven't been sitting around since then; oh no. We've had a busy half-year of traveling, cycling, hiking, and sight-seeing, just like we hoped. We bought a car (a Honda CR-V), visited family, and settled back into life in the United States. We've shared a lot of photos and stories with our Facebook friends and through Photobucket. But now we've had time to rest up, and the itch to blog has returned! I thought I'd share links to photos of our memorable times over the past six months here before re-starting the blog. Hope you'll stay tuned, there's a lot more to come. This twosome isn't done yet! |
Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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