Wind Cave NP, Natural Entry Tour & CT-Lookout Point Loop, 5-25-2023

For hikers, Wind Cave National Park has some of the most diverse terrain around. The only catch is that you need a generous definition of “hiking” for it to count. An ideal day at Wind Cave would be a morning hike on surface trails, followed up by a cool, but weatherproof, walking tour of the cave in the heat of the afternoon. On this trip Jean and I didn’t plan well enough to pull that off. After some indecision about our schedule, the advance reservations for cave tours were sold out, and we would have to try for a same day, walk up reservation.

Jean at the par visitor center.

We decided to get an early start on our Wind Cave day by driving to the park to wait in line for the 8AM opening of the visitor center, and start of the sale of the same day cave tour tickets. We were staying in the town of Custer, so the drive would be short. We drove in from the west side on US 385, not wanting to risk being held up by the temptation to photograph wildlife, or take the risk of being caught in a bison jam along the way. We arrived about 25 minutes before 8, and were around the 25^th in line, easily early enough to get our preferred tour.

Boxwork at Wind Cave.

With tickets in hand, we had time to explore the displays in the visitor center before the 9:30 Natural Entrance Tour. We discovered that Wind Cave is the site of the Lakota Emergence Story, as the place where the people emerged from their underground Spirit Lodge onto the surface world, and would follow the great bison herds who would provide the food, clothing, and shelter they would need to live.

Wind Cave Bison.

Our tour group numbered about 50 or so, but Jean and I managed to say close enough to hear the guide, who did a great job teaching about the geology and history of the cave. We started at an airlock door near the Natural Entrance, and gradually descended stairs and ramps to reach the lower cave level by the Cave Elevator. The tour lasted 75 minutes and was advertised as 1.25 miles, but was probably shorter. We made 3-4 stops for interpretive comments, but I couldn’t match up our stops with the rooms and features marked on the park brochure.

Boxwork at Wind Cave.

Wind Cave doesn’t have a lot of splashy cave formations like stalactites or stalagmites, but it is known for world class boxwork formations. Our guide described the boxwork as originating from intersecting cracks opened up in the limestone that hosts the cave. The cracks were first filled by gypsum, which was then replaced by a harder form of calcite in a period when the cave was below the water table. Subsequent uplift of the Black Hills dried the cave out and solutions dissolved out the host limestone leaving the more resistant calcite exposed. Jean and I both tried to get photos of various cave formations, but underground photography is tough.

Hiking along Beaver Creek.

Jean is not as comfortable as I am underground. But the tour route was manageable. Most of the route followed tall, straight, but relatively narrow openings. The spacing of the larger rooms was close enough to fend off any claustrophobia, and the tour route generally had a cement floor. The tour was interesting enough for me to want to retake the rest of the park’s tours. The cave is currently the third longest in the country behind Mammoth and neighboring Jewel, which are both also managed by the NPS.

The Centennial Trail along Beaver Creek.

Next we decided to take one of the shorter hikes in the park’s backcountry. We chose the loop connecting the Centennial and Lookout Point trails. I was surprised to find the Norbeck Dam Trailhead almost full when we arrived. This is the southern end of the 120-mile long Centennial Trail, but there was only a map board to mark the spot.

We started on the CT to make a clockwise loop. Almost immediately we saw a lone bison, and wondered if these guys took shifts near the start of trails to ensure visitors see at least one animal. Jean spotted shooting stars, a flower much more rare home in TN. A few wooden bridges helped to cross Beaver Creek. At our junction with the Highland Creek Trail a well trampled bison trail confused the way temporarily. 

Prairie dog, Wind Cave NP.

Next up was a short climb out of the creek valley up to a prairie covered by a massive prairie dog town with a small bison herd off in the distance. These dogs were as tolerant of people as any I’d seen, and were careless enough to let hikers get between them and the entrances to their burrow. Perhaps years of hiker traffic have taught the dogs not to see hikers as a threat.

After Lookout Point there was a smaller dog town, or maybe just the outskirts of the first one. Another lone bison prompted us to a long detour before we made the final crossing of Beaver Creek.

Wind Cave hike route.

We finished up with a five mile loop, with just enough energy left to seek out ice cream in town, after an encounter with the Custer Park herd along the Wildlife Loop Road. With the herd we would see two days later at Badlands National Park, this would make different four bison herds seen in one trip.

Bison calf in Custer State Park.

Custer State Park, Grace Coolidge and The Lost Trails, 5-24-23

One of the hikes we remembered best from our previous trips to Custer State Park was the Grace Coolidge Walk-in Fishing Trail. The name dates from when the President and his family used Custer as the site of the summer White House, attracted in part by the reliable fishing nearby the State Game Lodge. We remembered it as a beautiful canyon cut by lovely stream, with a wide, easy trail. I’d ridden the trail back in the days when it was open to mountain bikes, but it is now open to foot travel only to preserve its wild character.

Elk along US Highway 16A

The trail may be the most popular trail in CSP, excluding the routes around Black Elk Peak, Little Devils Tower, and the Cathedral Spires. Packing up before the hike we were reminded of the trail’s 15 odd creek crossings, which might be an issue with the park’s wet spring. We arrived early enough to get the first spot in the parking lot. I was taking a GPS route and noting landmarks in case an opportunity arose to update my old Black Hills trail guide.

Along Grace Coolidge Creek.

Luckily, the first crossing of Grace Coolidge Creek had a wooden plank bridge and the second was an easy rock hop. All subsequent crossings were bridged, part of an effort started the previous year. Without having to worry about keeping our feet dry we turned our attention to the canyon around us. Though only a few hundred feet deep, it offered cliffs of Harney Peak Granite mixed with open forest. There are six small Civilian Conservation Corps built dams along the way, each which its own small pool and secluded fishing spot.

Beam bridge over Grace Coolidge Creek.

Just as the canyon began to open up we came to a bench placed in memorial to park advocate Sue Brown. Next we saw our first hiker of the day; amazingly enough the same mushroom hunter who had helped us out the previous day in finding the Barnes Canyon Trail. We had another long chat about hiking trails and water quality issues, but sadly neglected to get his contact information.

Granite outcrop and pond along Grace Coolidge Creek.

Just beyond the bench was the junction with the “Lost Trails,” which we planned to use for our return route. The Grace Coolidge Trail ends at Center Lake (home of the Black Hills Playhouse), at the south end of the campground road. We planned to turn the hike into a “lasso” by adding the trails on the east and west sides of the lake, making the Lost Trails the loop, and using Grace Coolidge as the stem.

Just across the parking area was a signboard at the trailhead for the west side of the Lost Trails. The signboard explained that the Lost Trails were likely built in the 1930s by the CCC, but were only recently found and rehabilitated. The trails were then added to the CSP system in 2020.

Map at Lost Trails Trailhead.

However, the west side trails were previously known as the Center Lake Trails, and were abandoned after the devastation of the 1988 Galena Fire, along with the short hiking trails at the park’s Blue Bell Area. The west side Lost Trail matches the descriptions and sketches in Fielder’s 1973 “Hiking Trails in the Black Hills” and in Brandt and Jorgensen’s 1981 “Family Hiking Trails in South Dakota,” with the exception that both sources show a heart shaped loop, rather than the current spur, loop, and overlook configuration. The Center Lake Trail is also mentioned Baskett and Sanders 1977 “An Introduction to Custer State Park and the Southern Black Hills” and matches some brief notes I made on a 1987 hike. So, it was likely that the west side Lost Trail was well known park trail from at least 1973 through the 1988 Galena Fire, when knowledge of the trail faded from the park’s institutional memory.

Center Lake from the Lost Trails Overlook.

The descriptions of the old Center Lake Trail do not rave about the trail’s features. We found it’s reincarnation as a nice open walk through open forest on a single track dirt surface. The overlook is the trail’s redeeming feature, with a beautiful vista over Center Lake. After a quick 1.2 miles we were back at the bath house.

We picked up the east side Lost Trail to the north, just after the campground road crossed a small stream by following the blue diamond blazes. The trail starts by hugging the lakeshore near the campground and passes a small dock. Beyond, the trail leaves the campground development behind and makes a couple steady climbs aided by stone stairways. The east side area is not mentioned in any of the four sources cited above, and is likely the ‘lost” part of the trail, The stone stairways have the look of CCC-era construction, and likely date to that era. Perhaps the same 1988 Galena Fire that so devastated the west side trails, had burned over, and eventually opened up, the ‘lost” CCC trails on the east side.

CCC-era stone steps on the Lost Trail

Circling around, there are views of Center Lake and scattered granite slabs. Next, the trail passes below the outlet for the lake’s dam, which the park markets as a waterfall. After a mile and a half, we were back at the intersection of the Grace Coolidge Trail by the Sue Brown bench. We shared the return hike with a steady stream of other hikers, including one family with Tennessee ties.

Second set of CCC-era stone steps on Lost Trails.

Since it was still early in the day we headed over to Legion Lake for another hike. We hiked the Legion Lake Loop, added a series of spurs to the Badger Clark Trailhead, and then went on to the Centennial Trail at its junction with Horse Trail 1, where we saw a rare group of CSP backpackers. 

Legion Lake.

Custer State Park, Barnes Canyon, 5-23-23

When Jean and I were preparing for our return to the Black Hills we knew that much of  what we remembered would be changed from our last visit in 2007. We wanted to spend most of our time around Custer State Park and were happy to see that the park had added several new trails. Most of these were short hikes, but at 4.6 miles (one way) Barnes Canyon looked long enough for a full day hike.

Elk near the Wildlife Loop Road.

Digging in deeper, we found that the trail was formerly part of Custer State Park Road #8. We expected the gravel road had been closed around 2020 due to some type of blockage for vehicles, but still looked forward to walking it. I had previously driven, and mountain biked several of the CSP roads, and found them scenic enough for hiking and wildlife watching.

The CSP trail map showed the East Trailhead near the park airport, and there we got our first surprise. Instead of a trailhead near the airport road junction, we saw a sign directing us out onto the gravel road. We nearly gave up on reaching the TH, when nearly a mile later we parked in a small lot adjacent to a road closure gate in a seemingly random spot. But we were eager to set out on the trail. After the prior day’s crowd on Black Elk Peak and Little Devils Tower, we expected to have this trail to ourselves.

The first mile was mostly open prairie. The trail would remain a gravel, two track surface that would make ideal biking. Once into the trees, conditions were cooler and shadier. Jean did some wildflower investigation, but we were down to a sparse summer assemblage. The trail was marked as a buried fiber optic cable line, so perhaps there were right of way issues leading to the vehicle closure.

The trail dropped along Dry Creek, which with 2023’s wet spring supported a modest flow. Near the head of the creek at Lost Mine Draw were five bison taking advantage of the available water, shade, and grassy meadow. They were reluctant to vacate such an idyllic spot for two tourists, so we adapted by hiking a wide loop around the trail and the bison.

Bison grazing along Dry Creek.

On the next hilltop was the trail’s medallion for the park’s 2023 hiking challenge. We would come close to completing the challenge in our week in the Hills, but did not collect the medallion rubbings that would have been needed to certify our result.

Bison in mid roll.

At 4.6 miles, in a lush, but shady lunch spot we reached the T-intersection with the CSP Calkins Draw Horse Trail, leading left and south toward French Creek. The park’s hiking and horse trails are on separate maps, so you need both maps, and some figuring, to orient yourself at these junctions. Though our distance was about right, we were clearly not at the West TH for the Barnes Trail. Knowing that a right turn would take us toward the Badger Clark section of CSP, we followed the horse trail and access road that way.

We climbed over a small hill topped by a wastewater pond, and then walked down the access road for the pond. At the bottom of the hill a “Trail Closed” sign led left, so we kept right and headed for the main gravel road (which was the west end of CSP #8), then turned right again to walk a short spur towards the West Trailhead.

Luckily for us we arrived just as a pickup pulled in. We queried the driver, who proved helpful and knowledgeable about trails, and about the Centennial Trail in particular. As it turned out we’d followed the Barnes Canyon Trail to its end correctly. It is really 5.1 miles  long, even accounting for the fact that 0.8 mile of the old road on the east side is not part of the trail.

Cloase up of Dry Creek bison.

Our guide told us about of his mushroom hunting as he led us back to the trail closed sign. Just a tenth of a mile past the sign, the trail intersected what was marked as the Centennial Trail, but is actually just the spur connecting the West Trailhead to the main CT, near its mile marker 17. After resetting our bearings, we headed back to the Calkins Draw junction for a cool, shady lunch stop. 

Our Barnes Canyon Map.

The hike back was uneventful. Not too far along we spotted our guide, up on a ridge searching for his mushrooms. We encountered our bison friends again, and got the requisite extra mileage detouring around them.

Jean and I both liked the trail, but it did seem very much like hiking a closed road rather than a hiking trail. The interesting features are spread out, so this would be much more fun riding on a mountain bike. The firm smooth surface would be a great ride, and there would be the possibility of linking up to rides toward Legion Lake or French Creek. CSP no longer produces a brochure on mountain biking in the park, but their gravel road system offers great potential for easy riding.

Mooching mules on the Wildlife Loop Road.

With much of the day still ahead we decided to drive the Wildlife Loop Road. But in the middle of the day, we saw few critters, especially compared the early morning bounty we were seeing on our morning drives. The Bison Center (which opened in late 2022) had some great displays, and fits with the park’s bison-centric marketing scheme. But we were disappointed with the new trails that were advertised as 1 and 3 miles long in park’s trail brochures, but were actually only 0.3 and 0.5 miles long. Since a goal of the trip was to determine if it was feasible to update a third version of my Black Hills and Badlands hiking guide, I was taking detailed notes on our hikes.

Coyote prowling a prairie dog town.

The park’s Tatanka Magazine and its hiking brochure seemed poorly put together. Trails were missing from each, several mileages were wrong, the horse trail info was missing, and several spur trail were marked on the ground as the main Centennial Trail. Hopefully, these are a short term glitches that will be repaired in later editions.

Map of the Bison Center trails.

Black Elk Peak, Cathedral Spires, and Little Devils Tower, BHNF, 5-22-2023

The hike to the top of Black Elk Peak from Sylvan Lake may be the most popular and most scenic of all the trails in South Dakota. The features just keep coming, a beautiful mountain lake, open pine forests, an astounding array of granite spires and pinnacles, a designated Wilderness Area, and finally the historic tower on the top of the state’s highest peak.

Entering the Black Elk Wilderness.

When I lived in the Black Hills, Black Elk Peak and the trails in the surrounding wilderness were some of my favorite destinations. But more recently on trips with Jean I’ve had less luck, the thick summit fog of our last visit has become our metaphor for a blank gray palette. But coming into this trip the weather forecast looked good, and we decided to try the hike for our first day back in the Hills.

The main trail (#9) from Sylvan Lake Picnic Area is still a wide, heavily used path. An examination of the map posted at the start showed that the spur trail to Little Devils Tower had been relocated, and that the connector between Trail 4 and the Cathedral Spires had been reestablished, but otherwise things looked comfortably the same as our last visit in 2004(!) 

The Cathedral Spires and Little Devils Tower

The trail starts with a steady climb to the Lost Cabin Trail junction. Just beyond is the first great view of Black Elk. The side by side wide trail then makes a long, gentle traverse to the east teasing with occasional glimpses of the high peak ahead. Soon we entered the Black Elk Wilderness and got ready for another climb. Wandering among the granite outcrops we came to a junction with Trail 3, then ventured onto the final spur trail to the summit.

Close up of the Cathedral Spires.

Black Elk is capped by a magnificent CCC constructed stone tower. The view is typically great, but ours was somewhat restricted by smoke blown in from wildfires in Canada. We could still see west to the range capped by St Elmo and Sylvan peaks, all across the Wilderness dotted with an inexplicable pattern of granite outcrops, and east to the “backside” of Mt Rushmore. But the true eyecatchers are the Cathedral Spires and the adjacent wall of Little Devils Tower to the south. Back in the day I’d climbed several of the spires with my friends Karl and Tod. Looking at their steep exposed faces it was hard to imagine meeting that challenge now. Along the stairway we noticed the repository of the ashes of Valentine McGillycuddy, part of a group of the first white explores to climb the mountain. 

The summi tower on Black Elk Peak.

One would think that a mountain in the middle of Wilderness would change little over time, but this was not the case here. When I lived in the Black Hills this was Harney Peak, named by explorer Gouverneur K. Warren for his commanding general, who was later held responsible for attacks on Sioux tribesmen. In 2016 the U.S. Board on Geographic Names officially changed the name of the peak to Black Elk Peak in honor of the Oglala Lakota holy man. The change has precipitated a cascade of further name changes as features named for the peak, such as hiking trails, gradually replace the name Harney with Black Elk. In addition to the name, change a more recent survey showed the peak listed as two feet higher.

Prayer flags on Black Elk Peak.

The new name fits better with the peak’s cultural heritage. There are now clusters of prayer flags around the summit, and the peak must feel more welcoming to native peoples. We were lucky to see only a few other hikers when we arrived, and for a while we had the summit to ourselves. On the return trip we passed a steady flow of hikers. We decided to return via Tral #4, first passing the group of spires north of the Cathedral Spires. Next we could see a pair of climbers on one of the Cathedral Spires and walked down the new connector trail to the spires for a closer look. After summiting their pinnacle, the climbers spotted us talking photos and yelled down an address for us to send them pictures.

Climbers on Javelin(?)

For the icing on the cake, we took the side trip to the top of Little Devils Tower, with its scary steep view off its north face toward Black Elk. Attracted by a relatively short hike to a magnificent vista the trail was packed, a long way from the seemingly isolated peak where I’d crash/camp after a day’s rock climbing in the spires.

The top of Little  Devils Tower with Black Elk Peak in the background.

After so many awesome sights the rest of the walk back to the car was bound to seem tedious, but we dragged out what energy was left after two long driving days from Ames. On our return the parking area was packed, so arrive early if you try this hike. But what a way to start the trip, with enticing hiking all around and a perfect weather day. 

Little Devils Tower summit.

Our route in yellow.

Fort Robinson State Park, 5-20 & 21-2023, Hiking

Jean and I had planned a May trip to visit her family in Iowa, and we decided to add on some Black Hills hiking. But it’s a long way between the two destinations, so we started looking for stops along the way. We had seen information about Fort Robinson in Jean’s book on the state parks. The park has 22,000 acres of mixed badlands and prairie that seemed reminiscent of the Black Hills. Plus, there was the only designated Wilderness in Nebraska.

Two fossilized mammoths with entwined tusks.

The Park has lots of accommodations, but the area seems pitched toward horse riders. We found only one regional pamphlet geared toward hikers, but that one did show some intriguing loops. The park advertises 60 miles of hiking trail, and 20 miles for mountain bikes. 

Mammoth display in the Trailside Museum.

We left Ames after lunch on Friday and drove to the cornhusker-themed Big Red Motel in Laurel, NE. It was clean, spacious, and right across the street from a subway shop. It got our vote as the best motel of the trip. The next day we drove the rest of the way across the state, much of it along US 20 and beside the Cowboy Trail, the site of our 2009 bikepacking adventure (Cowboy Trail). The Cowboy Trail was almost completely unused when we rode it, so we were happy to see both hiking and backpacking groups using it. But it is still much under promoted. We only saw trail signs along the road in one place, just east of Valentine.

The History Center at Fort Robinson.

Once at the Fort Robinson we found out it was “Free Day,” which they appeared to be using as a break in time for their new seasonal workers. We hit the trailside museum first. Their signature feature is supposed to be the “Clash of the Mammoths”, a fossil display featuring two bull mammoths who died fighting with their tusks interlocked, but it really was their new volunteer interpreter. His knowledge of the find went back to when he was a student helping to excavate the mammoths in the 1962, when the fossils were first discovered. Replicas were on display at the museum until 2006, when the building was finally ready to house the real fossils. 

The Red Cloud Buttes from the Turtle Rock Loop.

Our otherwise knowledgeable interpreter wasn’t much help in choosing a hiking trail saying, “I usually don’t bother with the trails.” But he did mention that he was planning to hunt for elk with an atlatl (throwing stick) this fall. After some discussion, he said it would be good to go for a cow rather a than bull on his first try. Fort Robinson is home to elk, bighorn sheep, and bison, all of which would be enough to make a park highlight on their own. But like the hiking trails, the wildlife gets little promotion from NE state parks, and we had little idea of where in the park to look for them.

At the Turtle Rock overlook.

Next we went to the park’s other museum, the History Center, The park had begun as the Red Cloud Indian Agency then went through multiple missions, including a calvary post, the world’s largest remount depot for army horses and mules, a War Dog Reception and Training Center, a World War II German POW camp, a USDA Beef Cattle Research Station, and a Soil Conservation Service Training Center before becoming a state park in 1962.

Descending Turtle Rock.

We’d made good time on our drive and still had time for a short hike. Looking at our pamphlet (which had little information on trail names or distances) we decided to try the Turtle Rock Loop. This turned out to be a great loop hike to a precarious overlook. The only negative was that trail had been very recently bulldozed. We later learned our hike was the route of the park’s wildlife jeep tours. At least the dozer work gave us perhaps the smoothest trail tread we’d walked in years.

Bulldozer work on the Turtle Rock Trail.

Near the top of the climb was the spur to the overlook and a fenced area protecting what we assumed was Turtle Rock. Our views were hazy thanks to wildfire smoke being blown in from Canada. But one could imagine seeing all the way to Black Hills on a clear day. Much of the rest of the 2.4 mile loop kept us on the butte top, with continuing vistas.

Turtle Rock Loop.

We stayed that night in the Hilltop Motel in nearby Crawford, but the real treat was ice cream at the shop in the middle of the tiny town. For the next day we planned another short hike to give us time to drive north to Custer State Park.

The elusive trailhead for Lovers Leap.

We decided to try the Lovers Leap Loop, which we expected to be another nice butte-top overlook. The big challenge was finding the trailhead. We’d not found it on a test drive by the night before, but this time after heading through the town park, we searched along a fence line by a corral. Jean spotted a white post and signs at a gate in the fence that turned out to be the park boundary.

Pronghorn in the prairie below Lovers Leap.

There was still some smoke in the air, but not enough to obscure the views, or effect our breathing. The trail began as an old two track road across the grassland. We passed an unsigned older road on our left, presumably leading off to US 20. A curious pronghorn tracked our progress. 

Lovers Leap from below.

At a shady junction a mile in we came to the signed junction with the Wagon Wheel Trail, leading west toward park HQ. We would start a short loop here. Our route turned north to follow the white posts toward the buttes. At the base of the buttes, we circled around to the backside, then came to a deep cleft leading upward. Some mild scrambling got us on top where we enjoyed a full serving of badlands scenery. 

Jean in the cleft below Lovers Leap.

Our descent was complicated by some social trails, but we eventually found the East Red Cloud Trail, which took along the crest of the buttes.

Hiking along the top of the Red Cloud Buttes.

Though not quite as rugged as Badlands NP, the soft rock layers here were easily eroded. We hiked by a series of towers and turrets along with a formation we named the totem pole.

Totem Pole formation near Lovers Leap.

Our return route used the Mule Trail and then the Wagon Wheel Trail to close our loop. Then we repeated our first mile of trail to return to the car. Though we had seen no more wildlife after leaving our pronghorn behind on the prairie, we were more than satisfied with the views. The terrain seemed a hybrid of the soft, eroded badlands and the mixed pine and prairie of the Black Hills, maybe this is a one stop shop for hikers looking to experience both.

Smoky skies from wild fires in Canada.

After the hike we weren’t ready to leave. We drove the Smiley Canyon Road, the park’s wildlife drive. Our timing was right, we spotted the park’s herd, a line of 30+ bison moving purposefully across the grassland. We could pick out a few cinnamon calves, and spied another pronghorn.

The Fort Robinson bison herd.

Having seen our first bison herd of the trip we turned north toward the Black Hills. The drive between Crawford and Hot Spring, SD went quickly, but this was one of the most desolate areas I’d ever seen. The lonely town of Ardmore, SD looked like an movie set for the apocalypse.

We spotted a few one bison driving through Wind Cave NP, where we stopped to watch their visitor film, and get information on cave tour tickets. Then we drove through Custer Park where we saw bison, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep (though these were simply licking salt off the road) before checking into the State Game Lodge.

Our route to Lovers Leap.