Custer State Park, Sunday Gulch, 5-20-24

Three days into our Black Hills trip we had not yet hiked in Custer State Park. At the top of my Custer list was Sunday Gulch, a trail I had not hiked since the 1990s. In some years the gulch holds snow and ice into the summer, but we learned at the visitors center that the trail was open for 2024. We’d seen crowds at the Sylvan Lake Day Use area, so made sure to arrive early.

Morning light on Sylvan Lake.

The Sunday Gulch and Sylvan Lakeshore trails are two loops connected like a Figure 8. Otherwise, the trails couldn’t be much different. The Lakeshore Trail is a gentle gravel path leading about a mile around the lake. Sunday Gulch is the scene of numerous rescues of stranded hikers. The gulch is steep, bouldery, catches little sun, and holds its winter snow. The start of the trail closely follows a small stream that occasionally spills over into the trail. The tricky part of the trail is partly paved, and has steps, walkways, and handrails. Nevertheless, it is an easy place to get stuck, especially of you are expecting something as easy as the Lakeshore Trail. But experienced hikers will have no trouble, as long as they keep their wits about them. 

The descent into Sunday Gulch.

We caught some early morning light starting around the lake. At the far end near the dam the connector between the Lakeshore and Sunday Gulch was not signed, but once in a long narrow crack, the way is obvious. Some signs at the base of the dam warn novices of the potential difficulties ahead.

Sunday Gulch.

The hike through the upper gulch is amazing. You start in a group of spires called “The Outlets” by climbers, and then pass through “Middle Earth.” The trail twists through the narrow gulch around massive boulders and below sheer granite walls. Spires and towers of all shapes and sizes crowd around a magical landscape. It’s a place as magnificent as any in the Black Hills. The amazing section extends only a quarter mile, but the gaping and gawking make it last much longer. After a brief retreat to the forest, the trail enters a second, smaller spire area. 

Sunday Gulch flowing across the trail.

The climb out is much less exciting, mostly following a utility corridor alongside the highway. We ran into a couple of experienced Black Hills hikers who were thrilled to finally be on Sunday Gulch, after several earlier attempts were scuttled due to foul weather. Towards the end of the loop there is a final scenic section where the trail reenters Middle Earth and the Outlets. 

The spires of Middle Earth from the back side of the loop.

I had some 1980s era detailed notes that didn’t quite match the end of the loop, and wondered if CSP had since made a slight relocation to keep the trail from wandering through the developed area around Sylvan Lake Lodge. As with the Lovers Leap and Stockade Lake trails to follow, it appears that CSP has been doing some improvements to their trails to keep them away from park roads.

The rest of the day was devoted to guidebook activities. For the first time we hiked the Cairn Trail, a half mile loop at the Outdoor Center. Then we drove the Wildlife Loop in on and off rain, hoping to connect with park bison herd. We found them amid a jam between the Prairie Trail and the road to Wind Cave.

Large cairns mark the ends of the Cairn Trail.

At first the group was small and there was room for all. But in the main herd the cars got all packed together and scatted among the bison, including many calves. 

Bison calf scratching on boulder.

The bison aren’t afraid of cars and will come much too close. At one point I looked in my rear view mirror and all I could see was hump. They also appeared to be going after salt on the vehicles. One bison stood in the road licking the side of another car caught in the traffic. 

Bison licking salt from a vehicle on the Wildlife Loop Road.

With the rain continuing, and the need for keeping the windows up (like that will keep us safe!), we tried our best with pictures. 

Bison herd alongside the Wildlife Loop Road.

Later, as we drove past the side road to Mt. Coolidge the rain turned to steady snow. We crawled down the hill, and pulled into Legion Lake for an early dinner. Two bedraggled backpackers were there looking for an open room. We squeezed in a short walk on the Mickelson Trail later that evening.

The start of the Custer Spur of the Mickelson Trail.

We finished the hiking part of the trip the next day with the main event being Custer Park’s Lovers Leap Trail. Persusing some maps, I had figured that the park’s Galena Creek Horse Trail connected to the SW corner of the Lovers Leap loop. Without any horse facilities on the far end of the trail I suspected it got little use, and could be a fun out of the way trail hike. A volunteer at the Visitors Center had hiked it, and confirmed that the trail was little used by horses and was a lot of fun. 

Jean at Lovers Leap.

After visiting Lovers Leap (separately to endure no jumping) we found the unmarked Galena Trail where the Lovers Leap Trail reached the creek. The first section was a smooth single track in a tight little canyon. There were lots of flowers and lots of stream crossings. Unfortunately, Jean only had her hiking boats, and the unbooting and rebooting for all the crossings was going to take too long. So, we left the rest of the hike for our next trip. 

The view from Stockade Lake.

On the return leg of Lovers Leap, we found the trail had been relocated to pass above the seasonal housing complex and the Game Lodge developed area. The new single track eliminated a pesky road walk alongside the road. 

Ridgetop hiking on Lovers Leap Trail

Our fickle weather held a bit longer and we stopped to hike the Stockade Lake Trail. This is a nice short trail with good views of the Black Elk Peak area. 

Hiking along Galena Creek.

Stockade Lake Trail had also been relocated since our 2007 visit, and converted from a loop to semi-loop which added about a quarter mile.

Bighorn Sheep in Custer State Park.

Another batch of rain came afterward, but later in the evening we got out for our final walk on the Mickelson Trail south to MP 43 which was dry, and back to the Harbach Trailhead which was drizzly.

Bighorns at rest.

Jewel Cave National Monument, Scenic Tour, 5-19-24

One of the treats we had planned for our 2024 Black Hills trip was a tour of Jewel Cave. We’d toured neighboring Wind Cave last spring and Jean was comfortable being underground, so we expected the same at Jewel Cave. First some logistics. Since the main season hadn’t started, the 80 minute Scenic Tour was our only option. In the past I had taken the Discovery (the park’s shortest) and Wild Cave (the park’s most rigorous) tours, but still lacked the opportunity to take the Historic Lantern Tour. All the tours are popular and advanced reservations are needed, so we signed up via Recreation.gov. For 2024, tours at Wind Cave were suspended due to work on the replacement of the elevator, creating some extra demand at Jewel Cave.

Jewel Cave NM map with trails and cave routes.

Our tour started at 9AM with a quick safety tour from our ranger/guide. There were about 30 people on the tour, a small enough group that it was possible to hear the ranger at each stop. The first leg was the elevator ride down to the Target Room. We would tour a route that was pioneered by the legendary cave explorers Herb and Jan Conn. Our guide would do a spectacular job interpreting the geology and history of the cave at another half dozen stops along the way. Photography was allowed along the route, but it is tough to take pictures with underground lighting. 

Cross section of a crystal filled cave passage with bands of nailhead spar.

Jewel Cave currently has 220 miles of explored passages, and is the fifth longest cave in the world. Its beginnings were modest, the known passages were only a few miles long when the Conns and others began serious exploration of the cave. Besides its size, the cave is known for its namesake feature, the jewels of calcite crystals that line much of the cave.

Nailhead spar, the jewel of the cave.

After dissolution of the cave, its sandstone cap was breeched but the cave passages remained filled with water. This water lost its acidity and began to precipitate calcite crystals on the cave walls, essentially turning the cave into a giant geode. The final stage in cave formation was the draining of the water, and the local collapse of rock into some rooms and passages. Our guide told us the cave has the largest amount of nailhead spar (the crystalline form of calcite that makes the “jewels”) in the world, and may have even more boxwork formation that Wind Cave, considering the boxwork that may be hidden underneath the jewel layer.

Ladders and rails.

Our route went through Rum Runners Lane, the Formation Room, the Mezzanine, as well as Spooky Alley and the Torture Room, where the thirsty Conns were taunted with the dripping of water that they could not reach. We saw one slice of cave bacon, an unusual cove formation named for its stripes.

Cave bacon.

We also stopped at the New Wet Room where the construction of the cave elevator had allowed water seepage which was depositing new formations giving the park new insight into the rate at which these cave formations form. We also heard an update on current cave exploration which was now being carried out from an underground camp due to the amount of time needed just to reach the start of the new areas.

Boxwork in the cave walls.

The tour followed a concrete path with railings and a well-publicized 700+ steps. The NPS had done a great job of confining the impact of near constant tours to a small area within the cave. Hopefully, I’ll get back there in midseason to finally take one of the lantern tours.

An overlook of the tour route.

Jewel Cave is a small Monument, but does have a 3.5 mile long hiking trail on the surface. But Jean and I felt a little more ambitious, and drove across US 16 to the BHNF’s Hell Canyon Trail, where we hiked a six mile long loop (Hell Canyon) under clear blue skies.

After our Hell Canyon hike we went back to the Jewel Cave visitors center to check out the displays and watch the park film. We had just finished with the small display area when I checked the weather and noticed a storm cell heading straight for the Monument and on the way to Custer. I thought we could sit out a quick down pour when Jean heard a report of potential two inch diameter hail! We quickly headed for the parking lot where it had already started to rain. We realized that if we returned to Custer we would be in the cell the entire drive, and if we turned the other way we would be racing through the storm front at maximum speed, so we decided to wait out the storm in our Forester.

Hail on our hood.

After a first round of heavy rain, we got a second round of heavy slush followed up by pea-sized hail. The slush was unusual, just splatting on the car and windshield, usually precipitation is liquid or solid, not in between. Luckily, the cell was small. The storm lasted less than 30 minutes, though it seemed much longer. But soon the skied clear and we began clearing an inch of slush and hail off the car. Not as much was piled up on the warm ground. What a switch from the canyon mere minutes before, where we’d hugged what little shade we could find to stay cool. And what a surprise would await those on the cave tour who would emerge to blues skies and this wintery wonderland.

It was sunny just a few minutes ago.

Forgetting all about the park movie, we trailed the storm back to Custer watching the depth of snow on the few cars coming west, and the drifts of slush and hail along the side of the road. 

A miniature snowman.

Hell Canyon Trail Hike, Black Hills National Forest, 5-19-24

The description of this hike in my Black Hills guidebook begins with a discussion of how much this area had changed from a remote mountain biking destination to a well-built hiking trail in the early 1990s, before being consumed in the 2000 Jaspar Wildfire and scoured by subsequent flooding in 2003. My introduction to the area was a 1991 mountain bike loop. But I had also hiked the then new hiking trail in 1997 for the second edition of my guidebook and again in 2004 for the planned, but not released third version.

Despite 20 years away I was hoping for a great afternoon hike to pair with a morning Jewel Cave tour. I suspected Jean would like the area, the wild canyon might remind her of old wild west movies much in the way the Edgemont section of the Mickelson Trail had.

Hiking along the rim of Hell Canyon.

We arrived at a partly occupied trailhead. One of the big surprises of our 2023 and 2024 trips was how many people were on the trails. Back in the old days few people hiked for recreation, and not many of them were locals. But now it seemed the trails were getting steady use from both locals and tourists. Another surprise was a sign indicating that the Hell Canyon bighorn herd was battling an outbreak of pneumonia. Again, back in the day the only bighorn herd in the hills was in the Black Elk Wilderness. An article in the 3-6-24 Black Hills Pioneer about the sheep indicated that that there now also herds at Elk Mountain, Rapid City, Deadwood, and in Badlands National Park. The Hell Canyon herd of 85 animals had probable caught pneumonia from a domestic herd, and there were already fatalities from the disease.

Sign explaining pneumonia in Bighorn Sheep.

Excited about the possibility of seeing sheep we headed on up the trail. The climb to the canyon rim was steady and stark, the area had been totally scorched by the Jaspar Fire. I was taking notes and tracking with a GPS, while Jean took pictures. To be complete we headed out on the side trail to the overlook, but honestly the overlook doesn’t offer much that isn’t easy to see from the trail sections farther along the rim.

Climbing through the remains of the Jaspar Fire.

At the spur trail junction, the main trail starts along a two track road. The road looks like it will join a distant gravel road, but a handy sign shows the place where the trail swings away from the two track and back towards the rim.

Spring wild flowers.

As pretty as the trail is, the best scenery is after the trail drops a bit below the rim to follow the base of the thick limestone bed that supports the rim. Here are numerous solution pockets, small caves, and we even spotted one diamond shaped arch in a fin jutting into the canyon. The narrow trail and shear canyon walls may be why we did not see many mountain bike or horse tracks. There was at least a mile of this beautiful trail, often with overlooks down to the canyon floor, just begging for a screen test for the next Hollywood western.

A small arch formed in the canyon rim.

The descent down to the floor of West Hell Canyon was quick and easy. But the next half mile was a kindling pile of blown down pines. We obstacle coursed our way to the mouth of the next canyon, where the downed trees mysteriously ended. I’d followed that side canyon on my 1991 ride, it was hard to imagine riding a bike there now. 

We were surprised to see Rocky Mountain Iris.

The rest of the walk was sooth, level, and scenic. We passed a metal object of unknown origin before reaching what the BHNF cites as an old CCC Camp just above the split between the Main and West forks of the canyon. 

Any idea what this is?

We crossed an old fence line and rock hopped the shallow creek a few times before reaching the gate at the far end of the parking area and closing the 6.0 mile loop. Hell Canyon proved to be one of Jean’s favorite hikes of the trip, and is certainly worthy of being a destination hike on its own merits.

View down into the canyon bottom.

 

9-29-91, BHNF, Hell Canyon Mountain Bike Ride, ~24 miles, Solo

After our 2024 hike on the “new” BHNF Hell Canyon Trail, I was curious about the ride I took to the area in 1991. At that point I remembered little, but was able to locate an incompletely filled out route map and my sparse field notes.

West Hell Canyon from the rim.

I had been attempting to follow a ride description from my trusty copy of “Mountain Bikers Guide to the Black Hills’ that I had used for many other exploring trips in the hills. I was also in the midst of a goal to climb to all the present and former fire tower sites in the hills, and hoped to add a trip to the old tower site on Signal Hill (6,443’), about 5-6 miles to the north of the canyon.

To my surprise I found two entries for Hell Canyon, the first being two weeks earlier. On the first trip I started where the current trailhead is and rode 0.7 mi to the split between the main and west canyons. I got about another mile up the west canyon before the sleeve of my shirt, which must have been dangling off my bike rack, got pulled into my derailleur and broke it. Luckily I was able to roll the bike down the two track road back to the car.

With some time to kill, I visited the historic area at Jewel Cave, then went to the visitors center and took the 80 minute Scenic Tour, with no comments on either.

By 4PM I was over at St Elmo Peak, north of Custer and west of Sylvan Lake. I parked near Oreville and took BHNF 302-1A to Bear Gulch and then climbed the peak up an old logging road past the Clara Belle Mine, then cross-country up the southeast ridge, which had a few steep, scramble pitches. After reaching the 6,458’ summit I descended back to Bear Gulch via the southwest ridge, getting back to the car at 7 PM.

Not too long after this trip I would notice a then unnamed 7,000’ peak in the same range and would go back to climb what I would name Sylvan Peak on 10-5-91. (Sylvan Peak Blog)

On 9-29-91 I was  back again for another try at the Hell Canyon Ride and Signal Peak. Once again I was solo, but this time I had better luck. I was able to ride the two track roads up the West Fork to what the guidebook called ‘the plastic reservoir”, a small stock pond near the decision point for the long or short loops. My notes for this ride are sparse, and full of references to obscure cow paths and grassy two tracks that the Mountain Biker’s guide often utilized. In 2024 I attempted to add the track to my Topo! map, but am still unsure of the entire route. I likely stayed on route to BHNF-2F, but missed BHNF-2G and rode the main gravel road north. My route map has few markings, but I eventually reached BHNF 284 and rode to the top of Signal Hill.

Signal Hill had a concrete foundation, a telephone base, some rusty metal cans and steel supports. There were 4” diameter trees growing at the tower site and the trees were too high for good views.

Solution cavity in the canyon wall.

I didn’t do much better on the return leg of the loop. After overshooting on BHNF 284 I rode a cross country section where I got a bee sting on the lip. Then I overshot on BHNF 282. I came back, made the correct turn onto BHNF-2G, then took a long cross country route over to Bear Spring Creek, which got me back on the guidebook route. Bear Spring Creek merged into the main fork of Hell Canyon where I rode mostly two track back to the truck. The navigating was difficult enough that I did not find the time for much other note taking, including any description of what must have been the magnificent main canyon.

Trail in the bottom of Hell Canyon.

While the condition of the main canyon is intriguing, it is likely that it sees little traffic. There is much less grazing in the Black  Hills now than there was. For better or worse the grazing, and its associated infrastructure, kept many of these remote canyons open. The main stem of Hell Canyon may not have been cleared after the 2000 Jaspar Fire or after the 2003 floods, but I hope to get the chance to find out.  

Blowdowns in West Hell Canyon 2024.

Here's where I think I rode in 1991.

Grizzly Bear Creek Loop Hike, BHNF, 5-18-24

We’d had a ton of fun on last year’s hiking trip on the scenic, but crowded, loop to the top of Black Elk Peak. We wanted to duplicate that experience this year, but with a little more solitude. The Grizzly Bear Creek Loop seemed a great option, I remembered it as remote trails with lots of scenery combining granite towers and gentle streams. To avoid construction on SD 244 we decided to come in from the Grizzly Bear Creek Trailhead on BHNF 345 on the southeast side. Heading in, I drove to the Iron Creek Horse Camp Trailhead by mistake, but that detour notified us that there was a large horse group in the area.

Black Elk Wilderness.

The trailhead was just a gravel lot, but it did have a great map on the signboard with a topo base, and the mileages of each trail segment was shown. That type of info would put guidebook writers out of business, but I wish the forest was able to post similar maps at all their trailheads. I was taking notes to update my guidebook and tracking with a GPS, while Jean took pictures. All my GPS readings were close to the BHNF mileages, so I decided to use the BHNF data in my guidebook update.

Wilderness Trail Map.

The Grizzly Bear Creek Trail (#7) began as an old road (formerly BHNF 346) that was well on its way to becoming reclaimed. Immediately we entered the 2002 Black Elk Wilderness addition. The trail quickly narrowed to an alley of jumbled, often fire damaged, ponderosa pine, with aspen and birch growing close to the creeks. Most of terrain would be in the Harney Peak Granite, but we did see several cases of pegmatites intruding into blocks of schist. After 0.8 mile we reached the first of two closely spaced intersections at the south end of a large group of granite towers. At the first intersection the Centennial Trail (#89) enters from the south, and at the second our return route along Trail 7 split to the west.

Centennial Trail junction sign.

There was one old “I” blaze carved into a pine, but otherwise these trails did not have blazes, though the footways were distinct enough to follow. The CT junction brought in the horses, so the next sections were loose, rocky, and eroded. Our next junction was with the Centennial Trail Bypass (#89B) branching right to the Iron Mountain Road. The bypass became obsolete in 2002 when it became part of the Black Elk Wilderness, and I was surprised that 20 years later the BHNF had not renamed the trail.

The older version of this loop lacked the signature feature that makes a really great hike. The BHNF partly remedied that with a relocation to an impressive overlook above Mount Rushmore, a mile to the north. The overlook views the carving from the side, so that only Washington and Lincoln are visible. 

Great Faces, Great Places.

Next up was the junction with the Blackberry Trail to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. We ate lunch in the shade by the junction and were passed by a pair of groups backpacking along the CT. Most of the hiking along the loop seemed to be on the CT, and the heaviest horse traffic was between the horse camp and the Rushmore Overlook.

Steps along the Centennial Trail.

After lunch we were back in the Wilderness and heading for the magnificent towers near Horse Thief Lake. Our most common flower on the trail was shooting stars, a treat so rare at home that hikers plan their entire outing just to see one. We had some long gentle climbing capped with a wooden staircase before reaching the junction with the Horse Thief Lake Trail (#14). The junction sits along the axis of a long group of spires, and offers great views of a succession of towers, possible hiding climbers both human and caprine. We did our share of gawking as we passed up close to the northern group, then pulled away for more distant views of the rest. 

Some of the rock towers near Horse Thief Lake.

Eight miles in we returned to the Grizzly Bear Creek Trail in the valley of the creek. The Harney Creek Granite weathers so irregularly that its drainage patterns are as wildly erratic as the Badlands. It seems creeks wind whichever way they want, with no definite plan in mind. We would leave the Grizzly Bear Creek drainage for Iron Creek without hardly noticing the change.

Trail 7 followed an old road and was still open and wide.  Near the junction we stopped at an easy crossing and were overtaken by a large horse party. This group had been clearing blowdowns and maintaining the trail along Grizzly Bear Creek, and they had the tools to prove it. I’m often the first to criticize horse groups for the damage they do to trails, but this was a case where I was glad to see them. 

Work crew on Trail 7.

My guidebook describes potential campsite along the creek, and the backpackers we saw also mentioned them, but we had no precise locations. Jean and I saw several likely areas, but there were no well-established sites within sight of the trail. Approaching the CT junction, Iron Creek becomes a series of old beaver ponds, with some signs of active beavers.

Shooting stars.

After closing the loop at the 7-89 junction we retraced our route east on Trail 7 back to the car well satisfied with the scenery and hikability of the 11.7 mile loop. We celebrated with the scenic drive back to Custer along the Needles Highway past the Needles, Cathedral Spires, and Sylvan Lake where we kept the cameras busy despite a day far too bright and sunny for good photography. 

The Cathedral Spires from Needles Highway.