Day 68 - Badlands to Mount Rushmore to Black Hills

Today was a great, long day-- starting at the seldom-visited South unit of Badlands, heading to patriotic memorial Mount Rushmore and then to the scenic Black Hills.

A young Park Ranger said that Sheep Mountain Table was his favorite hike at Badlands, so I drove south. He also said the road could be impassable after heavy rains but I was able to travel four miles up to the mesa "table" top before the going got rough. I parked and walked along the dirt road amid vast grassfields and eventually leading to the edge of the mesa and lovely views of the canyons below. These white badland canyons reminded me of Bryce Canyon hoodoos. The road looped around and I walked for several hours without seeing another person-- my own private park.

Mount Rushmore was one of those places I had low expectations for given its tourist popularity-- but wow, I loved it! The memorial does a great job presenting the history of the site: 15 years in the making, 90% of the carving done by dynamite and great presidential ideals. The faces seem to look back at you. 3 million visitors a year make this a huge attraction and countless tourist attractions surround the memorial, making this Black Hills area a family-vacation, road trip hotspot.

High on the Black Hills highlight list is the Sylvan Lake-Mount Harney area of Custer State Park. I drove here late in the afternoon just as heavy rains were ending and the sky was brightening. The rock spires radiated off the water and the Black Hills vistas rolled effortlessly into the horizon. After a hike around the lake and hills, I drove along the 14-mile Needles highway, a narrow winding road built in 1922 and carving through "cathedral spires" and 8 foot wide tunnels. I then drove south through game land areas past Buffalo and Pronghorn Antelope before arriving at a secluded boondocking campsite outside Wind Cave National Park.

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Day 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

We got our first glimpse of smoke far across the valley as we climbed higher. Up on a ridge after a morning climb, we followed a side trail to an open viewpoint beyond the trees. Selfie:) The smoke, while visible, seemed to give the mountains a blue glow-- like a highlighter to a sketch. You could still see the edges of the mountain ridges, the story of their creation. We could hike in this. But the smoke looked worse farther south. Or it was getting worse as time rolled incessantly forward. On day two we had ran into a northbound hiker we nicknamed Speedy Steve. Speedy Steve had hiked 18 miles a day through eight consecutive smoke-filled days, including atleast three "very bad days" when he couldn't see the surrounding mountains, the sun glowed a haunting orange and ash accumulated overnight. On the way to Purple Lake we ran into three dirty, beat up, tired north-bound hikers with a similar story. They had to spend one night in an emergency hut at Muir Pass to avoid the...

Day 41 - Escalante Coyote Gulch

This one or two night Coyote Gulch hike was an easy test of my newly learned navigation skills. Anxious to get started I awoke at 545 just as the sun was rising. I followed an obvious landmark, a tall thin spire called Chimney Rock, northwest to Hurricane Wash (a drainage running into Coyote Gulch). After a couple of hours of walking up over and around slick rock, I entered the famous Coyote Gulch. The walls around me raised up, darkened and th water flow increased--like nature hinting at the scenic beauty ahead. The normally crowded Coyote Gulch was fairly empty on this early Thursday morning, giving the canyon a very peaceful and quiet feeling-- fragile almost. Down steam, I ran into the famous Jacob Hamilton Arch and then thirty minutes further-- the Coyote Natural Birdge. Both were beautiful due to their see through the wall character, but both would be overshadowed in my memory by the Stevens Arch tomorrow. Pics. By 1pm, I had hiked for six hours...

Day 42 - Escalante Stevens Arch

The Stevens Arch is so massive that legend says daredevil pilots would fly through it. I was excited to see it! Having napped most of the afternoon, I awoke promptly at 545, packed up my things and hiked down to the Escalante River as the first morning light was pouring into the canyon. Hiking around more waterfalls and ledges and along the stream before anyone else was up was nice. My written directions said to look for sandy hill to my right which led up to my only exit from the canyon-- the Crack-in-the-Wall. I ran into the confluence of the Escalante River, a point which my guidebook noted was passed my exit route, requiring a ten minute backtrack. This was fine though because I had tons of time and wanted to see the Stevens Arch. I crossed the knee-deep Escalante River several times before the Arch came into view. Like a window in the Roman Colloseum, the Arch seemed almost engineered by man in this tall curving canyon wall. I hiked under the arch and couldn't eve...

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