Spearfish, South Dakota and Spearfish Canyon

We have enjoyed our 3-day stay at Lake Sheridan. It was especially nice because of our lake-side spacious camping spot that we were blessed with. We thanked the campground host more than once for suggesting that we move to that great site. The morning that we were scheduled to leave, we could see through our front windshield that the lake was nice and calm. We had left the kayak inflated from our earlier float, and we decided that we had enough time before we left to explore the rest of the lake.

On our first float on Sheridan Lake, motor boats arrived and made big waves. But it was early enough this morning that we had the lake to ourselves.

Well, we did have to share it with the early morning wildlife.

We're pretty sure that they were as glad as we were that the motor boats hadn't yet arrived for the day.

We just said that perhaps we were too far north for lake turtles. Then we spotted this log of turtles.

We kayaked all the way around the lake and under the bridge.

Going where few boats will travel, we kept kayaking until we got to a narrow place where downed trees prevented us from going further. All total, we kayaked almost four miles. It was a beautiful time on Sheridan Lake, and a nice ending for our time here.

Then it was time to head north to our next camp site at Spearfish City Campground. Driving through South Dakota, we have seen interesting road signs that say things like "Think!" and "Why Die?" Since 1979, this state has been placing these signs along the highway where traffic accidents caused fatalities. It did make us think.

Going from no hook-ups at Sheridan Lake, it was a nice change to have full-hook-ups in Spearfish. We had some laundry to catch up with while we were camping in the lap of luxury with 50-amps of electricity, water, and sewer hook-ups. We enjoy all kinds of camping experiences that make our ever-changing life-style different every stay.

The main reason for a stop in Spearfish is to travel down the scenic Spearfish Canyon. So the next morning we had a list of stops to make along this curvy 19-miles of canyon scenery. The first stop was Bridal Veil Falls. This should be a stop in the parking lot along the highway, and a 100-yard walk to the viewing platform to see the falls from a distance.

But Mark has a hard time enjoying a waterfall from so far away. Surely we can get closer?!? The only problem was there was a river between that viewing platform and Bridal Veil Falls. He managed to get himself across, and even helped Denisa across too.

In the water we found two American dippers. These are unique birds that dip up and down, right before they dive into the water. We've never gotten a photo of a soot-gray dipper, and today's picture wasn't great because it was taken with our cell phone. But we were glad to find a little wildlife in Spearfish Canyon.

Once across the river and the boggy area that keeps most people away, we could stand right beside the waterfall.

Mark could even climb up the rock wall, to take a picture of his wandering wife who is content to stand at the bottom. It looks like we have already wandered into God's wonders in Spearfish Canyon.

Our next stop was at the trail head of Devil's Bathtub. This 2.3-mile hike shouldn't take long. But then we noticed that the people starting the trail beside us were changing into water shoes. Maybe we should too? We found out that with all the rain, the creek has swollen to some wide water crossings. So we changed out of our hiking boots and headed up the trail. While some people choose to walk through the water, we could always find a series of rocks or logs to keep our feet pretty dry and out of that ice-cold water. We did that for the twelve water crossings that we didn't even know about when we started this trail.

At the end of the trail we finally came to the rock formations that have been carved by the churning water of Spearfish Creek. Sometimes that water was running very close to the canyon walls that we were hiking beside.

The devil's bathtubs are the rounded rock indentions along the rock creek bed. 

After carefully crossing the river on logs and rocks for 12 water crossings, Denisa finally decided that dry feet were over-rated. It was just easier to walk through the water. Of course, you want to walk through quickly because it was cold enough to freeze your feet in a hurry.

True to form, Mark climbed up the rocks at the end of the trail just to make sure that this was absolutely as far as we could go. He hopped over the waterfall at the top to see the other side. If Denisa ever got herself into this stance, she would never be able to get out of it!

Then it was time to head back to the pickup. The 12 river crossings were faster on the way back now that Denisa's feet were already wet. That's 24 water crossings for one hike--not that anyone was counting.

Then it was another drive to the end of Spearfish Canyon and the little village of Savoy. We parked the pickup, and from here we could do three more hikes without ever moving it. We could hike west down more canyon walls . . .

through the wildflowers in the basin . . .

and along the smaller stream that is still carving its way through the canyon . . .

to Roughlock Falls. The water cascaded over a velvety green basin at the foot of the falls.

To see the entire Roughlock Falls, we had to hike higher into the canyon for this sliver of a view of Denisa standing over the waterfall in the distance. 

We made the return walk back through the canyon to the parking lot to add another 2 miles on our hiking totals.

Without moving the pickup, we could take off in a easterly direction towards Spearfish Falls. A viewing platform is on top of the falls, and you can barely see Mark in the right hand corner peeking around the trees in the picture below. He's standing on the viewing platform, but the only thing he can see from there are the people at the bottom of the waterfall.

Denisa is taking that picture from the bottom of Spearfish Falls, ande she had already walked among the wildflowers to get there.

It's a rather steep hike down the Spearfish Canyon Floor Nature Hiking Trail to get to the real views at the bottom. Those views will add another 1.6 miles to our hiking totals for the day.

But on the way back up the trail, Denisa could catch her breath and take more pictures of wildflowers like this lily.

That should pretty well finish all the hiking highlights of Spearfish Canyon. But there is one more trail that heads north from Savoy. So we started the 76er trail for another 1.6-mile hike (that included 568 feet in elevation gain). Instead of going down into the canyon like the last two, it is heading straight up.

We needed to stop and catch our breath, so Denisa took pictures of these strange flowers that look like something straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. Can you see Thing 1 and Thing 2?

After all that climbing up, we finally made it to the rim that we had been admiring from the canyon floor all day. We were just a little under-whelmed with the view from the top. Of course, maybe that's because we had seen so much in Spearfish Canyon.

Or maybe it was because our legs were tired. While none of the hikes were long, we had hiked more than 8 miles in our trip down Spearfish Canyon. It was time to head towards home, but we decided to take a less-scenic drive back to the town of Spearfish. Mark found roads that would make this into a loop drive, but we weren't sure about the road surfaces. We quickly ran out of pavement, but we found something very interesting.

We had discovered the Wharf Gold Mine. The company provided a viewing platform and signage for the few brave tourists that make it here. We watched through binoculars as huge trucks carried loads of dirt up the pit roads to dump them. A road grader can also be seen, even though it is dwarfed by the size of the trucks. It is working continually to keep that slanted road with steep drop-offs in shape for those trucks to pass.

The observation deck signs explained the gold mining process. They take the ore out of this pit and use an 18-month-long chemical leaching process to pull the tiny bits of gold out of the rocks. They are moving a lot of rocks here at Wharf Gold Mine to produce around 100,000 ounces of gold in a year. After having a nice platform to watch from the distance, we continued our drive around the pit. But we were warned that there could be "No stopping, standing, or parking" now.

We did have to stop when a light turned red on this seldom-traveled gravel road, and the arms of a traffic barricade came down. We were approaching the intersection that the big trucks must cross, so we got to see several roll by right in front off us.

Wow! They look big from a distance, but they look REALLY big when they were crossing right in front of us. They dwarfed the other car that was waiting in this gold-mine traffic jam.

We continued on this loop drive that Mark had mapped out, but we wouldn't recommend it. We found the worst roads in South Dakota as we went down narrow winding gravel roads through the state's back country.

We were relieved when we finally saw our first house in miles, and signs of civilization once again. But they picked this day to water down the red clay roads. We found that wet clay will adhere to the pickup and the bikes to make a brick-like covering. By the time we finished this loop drive, it would take thirty minutes in the car wash to remove that clay before it could dry and become permanent. We should have taken a picture.

It was another interesting day on the road. We enjoyed the beauty of Spearfish Canyon, where water has carved rocks and made waterfalls. We learned a little about gold-mining, and we determined that not all loop drives are a good idea.