Even
compared to the rest of the Black Hills, the Wyoming side of the range is a
quiet place. There are no towns in the hills across the border, and the nearest
communities of Sundance and Beulah are smaller than their South Dakota
neighbors. But just as on the South Dakota side there is plenty of great
hiking, biking, and skiing. In those days the SD School of Mines and Technology
held their summer geology field camp at Ranch A, south of Beulah at the
northern edge of what’s called the Grand Canyon. We’d heard stories of how
pretty the area was from some of coworkers, so Karl, Bob, Dick, Jim (from the
Two Wheeler Dealer in Spearfish), Nitro, and I headed out to see it for
ourselves.
The Sand Creek Mountain Biking team.
We
rode south on gravel BHNF Road 863 for 16 miles down the canyon and returned
the same way. These days that would qualify as a gravel ride, all on a
maintained gravel road. But we were still riding bikes with no shocks, so riding
roads was no hardship for us as long as the traffic was light, or nonexistent as
in our case.
Sand Creek Mountain Bike Route, 10-23-88
We
started the ride from Ranch A, which was a fish hatchery, as well as a venue
for events like the School of Mines field camp. The ride was what we expected,
a good gravel surface, very gentle grades, and almost no traffic. We rode to
the south end of the Grand Canyon, a short way past Williams Gulch and the
junction with BHNF Road 868. The canyon was only slightly less deep than its
neighbor, the much better known Spearfish Canyon. We saw lots of deer and wild
turkey. There was probably much more wildlife, five bikes and a golden
retriever crunching down a gravel road aren’t going to sneak up on anything. We
passed one arch in the canyon wall.
Arch in canyon wall Sand Creek, WY.
The next spring, I returned for a 24 mile solo ride on 5-21-89. But it would be a few more years before my next visit. By then the local group of the Sierra Club had evaluated the Black Hills for potential Wilderness designation. The Black Hills Group, and a coalition of other conservation organizations, were recommending five areas for Wilderness: Breakneck on the Centennial Trail in the northeast hills, Black Fox around Swede Gulch, Pilger Mountain in the southern hills, an addition to the Black Elk Wilderness, and Sand Creek. I was helping the Group by scouting of these areas, and managed to visit each one. I would next visit Sand Creek (on skis!) to scout the area, and followed that up by leading a Sierra Club hike there in June.
1-25-92, Cross-country Ski Loop, Solo
It
was unusual for me to scout a hike on skis, and this was a day that it would
have been better to be on foot. Even after a couple years of skiing in the
hills I misjudged the snow depth and the temperature that I’d experience during
the day. I drove in past Ranch A on BHNF 863 and parked at the crossing of Sand
Creek. There was 6” of crusty base snow, with a skiff of new snow on top, and a
temp of 40F. My plan was to ski up Sand Creek to the junction with Corral
Creek, ski to the head of Corral, and then from Sand Creek Crossing follow Sand
Creek back to the truck. Another volunteer, Nancy, had already checked out the
area and I had a copy of her map.
Sand Creek ski route 1-25-92.
At
the start I noticed some placer claims, not a surprise since Sand Creek was
downstream of the Tinton mining district. It took half an hour to reach Corral
Creek, then another hour and a half to reach its main fork. It was slow going
on skis over a rocky creek bottom in a canyon choked with pine, aspen, and
brush. The main attraction of Sand Creek as Wilderness was its importance as a
floral crossroads, but I would see none of that plant life on this trip. Corral
Creek had plenty of deer tracks, and a few old benches that looked like they
might have once been logging road spurs. By the head of Corral Creek, the snow
was warm and sticky.
I’d
gotten a relatively late start and the going was slower than anticipated, so I
abandoned my plan of skiing all the way to Sand Creek Crossing. I walked uphill
to an overgrown two track road on the top of the dividing ridge between Corral
and Sand creeks. There was only about 40% snow coverage with a 3” max base on
the ridge top. Stumps indicating an old logging road here, but I was able to
confirm a sighting by Nancy of old yellow bark pines. The temperature was close
to 50F already. I was able to ski part way down into Sand Creek before it got
steep and brushy enough to require hiking. But once along the creek I found the
skiing briefly better than in Corral Creek. But when the canyon got prettier,
the skiing got rougher. There was an obstacle course of boulders on the canyon
floor, but some beautiful shear limestone walls. At one spot the canyon
narrowed to become 10’ wide.
In
Sand Creek rock cairns marked placer claims. Beyond the fourth cairn, and just
short of the Sand/Corral junction, was a collapsed cabin and an old ore car.
Despite the mining heritage of the hills, artifacts like that were rare finds.
At the junction I skied back up Corral Creek far enough to recover a polypropylene
shirt that I had dropped on the way in. By the time I was nearing the truck it
was getting cold enough to freeze the snowpack, which meant I was finally getting
some good glide.
My
bottom line was that this was too long with too little snow for reliable
skiing, but likely would make a great hiking route.
Sierra Club hike to Sand Creek.
I’d
come back to lead a hike for the Sierra Club on 6-14-92. From BHNF 863 we hiked
up Sand Creek just above the confluence with Corral Creek, then went cross
country up and over the dividing ridge to Corral Creek and back via the
confluence. In late spring conditions it was a fantastic hike, and we had
wildflower experts along to identify the various species. I thought enough of
Sand Creek to include the route in the first two editions of my hiking guide,
with detail on its biodiversity. But by the early 2000s the BHNF had
constructed the nearby Dugout Gulch Trail, and I decided to swap the Sand Creek
Route for the maintained trails at Dugout Creek.
Sierra Club hike to Sand Creek.
Ultimately
Sand Creek did not receive Wilderness designation. Of the five areas that had
been proposed by conservationists, only the Black Elk Wilderness addition was
approved. 
Cliff scrambling at Sand Creek.
For
more information on Ranch A: rancha.com
