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Date Climbed
May 20-21, 2004
Conditions
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South Dakota's County
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I came to South Dakota for the first time (ever) in 1996, when I shot up from Nebraska to bag the state highpoint at Harney Peak. In 2004, I spent about a day and a half in the state, visiting some county highpoints around the Black Hills. On both occasions I had to dodge some pretty nasty and spectacular storms, including one in 2004 that dropped some baseball-sized hail (fortunately I was a few miles away from that cell). I've been inside the state one other time - in 2002 when I came over from Montana and Wyoming to spend a day at the Sturgis Biker Rally.
I arrived in Hot Springs, South Dakota, late in the day after a visit to the Nebraska highpoint, Panorama Point while all the while trying to dodge some twister weather and nasty thunderstorms. The original plan was to hit the three state highpoints of Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, basically one big loop clockwise from Denver and back. However, not long after I had landed in Colorado Springs and hit the road, the weather detriorated into "typical" High Plains for late May: foggy and stormy. I was able to visit the Nebraska highpoint with little problem as it stayed dry, mostly, but the clouds were thick, the fog was often thick, and there was a tornado warning for all of northeast Colorado. With that, I immediately changed my itinerary and headed north through the extreme western portion of Nebraska, eventually getting into Hot Springs just as the sun set and the rain came down hard. I took a very cheap, very poor-quality hotel in town, and got on the road very early the next morning (today) to visit the South Dakota apex, Harney Peak.
I followed the main highway north out of Hot Springs and on toward the trailhead at Sylvan Lake, spotting some bison on the way in while passing through Wind Cave National Park. Once at Sylvan Lake, I proceeded up the trails. The trails were in excellent shape and I'm sure the views were impressive, too, although I'll have to accept the book's word as fact on that. Once I gained some elevation the fog became quite thick. I hiked alone, no other souls to be seen, until I came upon a worker at the top who was doing some welding work in the summit lookout tower. We talked for a bit, and he took my victory pose photo, and I was soon on my way down. The hike down was highlighted by a big buck deer ambling ahead about a hundred feet or so, oblivious to my presence. It was lowlighted by the mud. The hike was 6 miles round-trip and 1200 feet elevation gain in about 3 hours. Now the plan was to make the long drive south toward the Kansas state highpoint. I made a quick visit to Mt. Rushmore but the fog was so thick I couldn't see the faces.
My drive south toward Kansas through Nebraska proved interesting. While still in South Dakota, on the west side of Badlands National Park, I took a road that according to my Rand McNally should have been paved but was not. In my little rental car, I skidded, slipped and splashed my way across 20 miles of mud and dirt, actually crossing Badlands National Park in the process, before coming out onto a paved road and then south into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. I finally re-entered Nebraska via Gordon, and then traversed the state north-south through the Sand Hills, going through the towns of Merriman, Hyannis, Arthur and Ogallala. Impressive countryside: very jagged, rugged features, not the smooth rolling countryside I had imagined. The rest of the day was spent driving down the eastern portion of Colorado toward Burlington, where I stayed. The next day I visited the Kansas and Oklahoma state highpoints in more abysmal weather.
I was now on my 2004 High Plains County Highpoint tour. After a full day in Nebraska where I'd successfully completed five counties (three that involved hikes, two mostly drive-ups), it was getting late in the day and I had time for one more quickie hike. From the Dawes County highpoint in Nebraska, I headed up into South Dakota via the city of Rushville (Nebraska), and north into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation at the South Dakota state line. I had been through this very area back in 1996 and didn't like it one bit. This was partly due to me getting lost on an unmarked dirt road in a tiny economy vehicle in rain, but also just the horrible poverty that I saw while in the region. At that time I spent just enough time to take in the Wounded Knee Memorial, then got moving. I just didn't get a friendly vibe while there. The Pine Ridge Reservation is very well known for its past uprisings and off-the-scale poverty. It is at best a very controversial place.
Driving up into the Res from Nebraska, I passed through the town of Whiteclay, which sits inside Nebraska, just a short walk from the state line. The Reservation is dry in that they do not sell or allow alcohol, obviously to combat the rampant alcoholism there. But Whiteclay is just outside the boundary. The town is just a bunch of boarded up homes and about five minimarts. Not really a town any more, just a place to sell booze to the Indians. I saw about 3 dozen men just sitting around, some clearly drunk off their asses. For the four miles or so to the town of Pine Ridge in South Dakota, there were lots of people just walking back and forth between the two locales. Pine Ridge itself is scarily poor, and I didn't stop while passing through. Depressing.
Well, the highpoint is definitely worth a visit. Located nearby Pine Ridge, I took a dirt road off of US-18 about 4 miles to where it topped out near a cattle grate marked by old truck tires. The terrain up in these hills was rather pretty, but the road featured two abandoned, burnt-out vehicles near the highpoint. I parked off the road, just a short walk from the highpoint. Again, I didn't feel like I really should be here and didn't want to chance meeting any of the locals, so I made a fast run to the top, tagged the benchmark, and jogged back to my vehicle. Although this hill is one of five areas that breach 3,700 feet in Shannon County, it was clearly higher than its neighbors. I did take a moment to verify that while up there. Back to my vehicle, I retraced my route and got back to the highway, where I drove through some rain to Hot Springs, South Dakota. So... it's a pretty hill in a pretty area, but located in a rather depressing section of the state.
Shannon County is unique: it is one of the very few counties in the country without a county seat. The county is actually one of three that make up the Pine Ridge Reservation, and one of the other counties (Jackson, I think) also does not have a county seat; the three counties use the services of the county seat of Todd County (I may have those two backwards). I guess there's no reason to superimpose a redundant level of local governance (i.e. a county government on top of the tribal one already in place), especially when there's no money to justify it. But then again, there are other counties in the United States that are co-extant with a local Indian Reservation that also have a county seat, so I really don't know why Shannon's situation is as it is.
I finished yesterday off with a quick hike up Bell Hill in Shannon County, then encountered some stormy weather on the drive to the city of Hot Springs about 50 miles further. I wanted to get situated close to the Black Hills for the next day. I stayed at a small ma and pa hotel, and had a nice meal at the Elk Cafe on the main drag where I met a nice Aussie couple enjoying their "holiday" in America. I lived in Canberra back in 1987 so it was nice to practice my Strine again with a native. They'd been everywhere it seemed, and pretty much made up their trip as they went along. My kind of people! I crashed kind of late, but still got up early the next morning, on the road before 7 a.m.
First on the docket today was Sylvan Peak, located just a few air-miles west of the state highpoint, Harney Peak, which I did in 1996. Then, I had lots of fog. Today, I had lots of ... fog. Slightly bummed, I found the non-descript parking pullout southeast of the summit and set in for what was supposed to be a quick 2-mile, 1-hour hike through the trees to the peak and back. Sylvan Peak has no official trail, but public access seems to be allowed. I had in hand a trip report describing the route. I did not have, however, a good topo map of the peak with the UTM coordinate system on it (essentially rendering my GPS useless). I had a poorer version of the map copied from the web but without the fine detail I usually like. I was not too concerned about these shortcomings, though, since I figured the route was short and the description was solid. In other words, I was my usual, overly-confident self.
It was probably about 7:30 a.m. when I started in on the hike. The route follows a service road that switchbacks up the southeast ridge of the peak. The road, closed to the public, but open for hiking, ends at a small utility box or something. From here, one simply starts up the steep hillside, heading mostly north, and following white-painted blazes (dots) on the trees to remain on the "route". I did this and had no trouble at all. It was foggy, and in some places I had to search for the next blaze even though it may have only been about 20 feet away. Quickly the route gains high on the ridge and comes directly below some massive stone outcrops, some of which were easily 100 feet high. The route stayed generally west of these outcrops, which were quite impressive. Further on the route gained into a crook of these rocks and then periodically mingled with the rocks and trees. All was well until about three-quarters of a mile in where I lost the white-painted blazed route. There were lots of downed trees here. I descended a short bit, maybe just 50 feet, crossed the cleared area and then, without any blazes to help me, figured I should go back up high to the ridge. This worked out well as I found the blazes again. After a couple more false summits I came upon the real thing, marked by a good-sized cairn amid a small rock outcrop (nothing like those massive ones along the way). It had only taken me about 50 minutes to cover this stretch, with about an 800-foot gain. So far, so good. The fog actually began to lift and I stayed at the top for a bit to get some neat views and maybe a photo of Harney Peak across the way, but the Sun, still low in the east sky, made any photographs that way impossible.
After a few minutes at the summit I started down. I followed the blazed tree route just fine for the few hundred feet it took to get me back to where the blazes had disappeared on me on my ascent. No prob, I figured. I even took a side trip to scamper back up to the ridge to get some more views, as the fog was really lifting now. Satisfied, I hiked back to where I had just been. I spent about 15 minutes looking for the continuation of the blazed trees. No luck. I was starting to get a bit concerned, and a bit annoyed that I was having trouble doing something that shouldn't be so difficult. But nothing looked familiar where I was. Finally, I made a command decision: just start moving. I knew the main ridge went north and south, and with the sun still low I had a good marker for east. So I decided to stay south as best as I could, which is what I did. I just kept moving, never finding those blazed trees again. As I descended, I got low enough to see the road below me (way below me), which at least meant I was not getting too far off. It was a failsafe if it came to that. The descent went through moderate to thick forest, and often up, across and over many rock formations, although at no time did I ever get myself cliffed out. Finally, I descended low enough to hear traffic, and to where I could see a power line. Shortly, I was out to the dirt road underneath the power lines. I had a funny feeling of knowing exactly where I was, and not knowing where I was at all. But fortunately my poor quality map showed a creek and drainage that seemed to jive with my reality, so I now could peg myself on the map.
I had actually hiked out almost 2 miles south from the summit, and put myself easily over a mile southwest of my vehicle. I walked the dirt road in both directions until I heard a motorhome rumble on the highway which was just a few feet up a slope from me, but totally hidden in the forest cover. Soon, I was up on the highway, still not 100% sure of where I was. I walked one way a few hundred feet and saw a sign for the city of Custer. Well, I knew I shouldn't go that way, and I now knew exactly where I was. I had a 2 mile walk along the highway to get back to my vehicle. I was hoping some nice people would stop and give me a lift but no one ever did. Just as well. The hike back to my vehicle went reasonably fast, and I had plenty of time to think about how I'd messed up. I finally arrived back to my vehicle at 10:30, exactly 3 hours after I'd started and I hade covered 6 miles easily, certainly more than the 2 I had planned for. I was fortunate that I brought along an extra water bottle.
I took an extended break at the vehicle to change and relax. I was actually really relieved to be back, and out of the forest. This is only the second time I have ever been truly lost, although I still 'sort-of' knew where I was. Had I not had the failsafes of the highway, I may still very well be in that forest, all dirty with a long beard and speaking in grunts. I decided to take it easy and went on to visit Mount Rushmore, which was awesome. My next highpoint for the day was over in Meade County, amid worsening weather. Here we go...
Earlier in the day I had an adventerous hike up Sylvan Peak in Custer County, in which I got off-route and made a 2-mile quickie into a 6-mile mini-epic. Tired and wanting to hole up somewhere to lick my wounds, I took some time out from hiking and visited Mount Rushmore which turned out to be an amazing experience. Afterwards I got lunch in Rapid City, then got a move on to bag more highpoints. The weather so far today had started out rainy and foggy, then clear and nice, but now, around noonish, it was getting cloudy - the big puffy kind that forms over the peaks. In other words, potential haymakers. Next up on the agenda was the highpoint of Meade County, an officially unnamed peak tucked in its southwest corner about 20 miles south of Sturgis. I had actually come down this way in 2002 after my Granite Peak climb in Montana, when I took a day out afterwards to go visit the mayhem of Sturgis during the bike rally week of early August. At that time I had a trip report but no map, and the weather wasn't so great either. Unless it was an obvious hike, I wasn't going to do it. It wasn't obvious, and I didn't do it! This time I had all my ducks in a row and came back, ready to take it on.
The highpoint peak doesn't necessarily stand out from its neighbors. Nearby Flagstaff Peak is the most well known in the immediate area, while higher peaks are nearby but in neighboring Lawrence County. Other than its status as the Meade County apex, it doesn't do a whole lot to attract attention to itself. Nevertheless, it is a worthy little hike, requiring good navigation skills and a bit of sweat to make the top. Coming off my Sylvan Peak experience where I made some navigation blunders, I was ready to get back into the saddle, so to speak, and tackle another peak requiring mostly navigation skills to attain the summit. The access to this peak is along paved Forest Road-26 north of Nemo and accessible south out of Sturgis. I parked at a large pullout that is northeast of the peak and beside a stream. It was about 1 p.m. when I finally arrived, in weather that was mostly sunny but definitely getting more threatening. Wonderland Cave is the main nearby tourist attraction and not far from the highpoint, but I did not visit it.
From my vehicle I descended the grassy banks off the highway, scooted under a fence and crossed the small stream. Climbing up the other side, I was met by a thick mesh of downed trees, grasses, young doghair thickets and lots of undergrowth. Going mainly on instinct, I started up a ridge and mostly bashed my way up the steep slope until after about 50 vertical feet the forest became considerably less thick, which was great! The gradient was still steep, but now navigation was a lot easier. The peak is crescent shaped, and the route I was following goes up one of its main ridges, a prominent northeast-southwest ridge. I stayed on the ridge crest whenever possible, and could see through the forest cover to my left the rounded cliff edges of the ridge. Shortly the grade moderated and eventually became mostly flat. I was near the top, but I had to make a right turn and walk west about 300 feet in very thick tree cover to cover the top sufficiently. I found a large tree with a pink surveyor's ribbon tied around it that seemed to indicate something, maybe the top. Regardless, the slopes give way pretty fast and it was fairly easy to cover the summit area for its potential highpoints. After a few minutes I started back down. The hike down went fast, and I had no trouble with route-finding. Along the way I was treated to thundering booms and some lightning. Things were getting interesting!
The round trip covered about 2 miles and about 650 feet of gain. It took me right about an hour. I named this peak after a prominent Gulch at its base, Virkula Gulch. I have no idea what the locals call it, if anything. From here I drove a Brownian path through the hills and through Deadwood-Lead to try my next highpoint, Cement Ridge in Crook County, Wyoming. But by now the weather had taken a real turn for the nasty and I was initially foiled on that attempt, although I bagged it the next morning. Instead I managed to succeed at the Lawrence County highpoint, once the storm had moved on.
A big storm had just dumped a ton of rain on the west side of the Black Hills and foiled me on my first go at the Crook County (Wyoming) highpoint on Cement Ridge. A typical plains thunderstorm, this cell cooked up around 3 in the afternoon, got violent for a brief while, moved slowly to the east toward Rapid City and then simply petered out (although not before pelting areas near Rapid City with baseball-sized hail, so I found out later). Coming down off of Cement Ridge, the cell began to fade and pass and figured I just may be able to go get two fairly easy highpoints in the area, assuming the roads weren't too soaked. I doubled back onto US-85 and headed southwest toward the Wyoming state line, then just before leaving South Dakota, I turned left (east) onto a good gravel forest road. After about 5 miles, I turned south onto a lesser road that steadily went uphill. I was near my objective, Crooks Tower.
Crooks Tower is a small set of rocky spires, grouped very close by, and actually accessible via vehicle from their backside, which is the way I approached. A sketchy forest road leaves the main road and climbs to these knobs. The storm had soaked all the roads but traction was pretty good... until now. I hit some very slick mud and had to go real slow in 4-wheel drive to maintain traction. I eventually leveled off near one of the tower areas (the road here, by the way, is the highest 'navigable' road in South Dakota). I walked the short bit to the top, then walked north to another hillock that may be just as high. Frankly, not very interesting, but the views southeast from these points were nice, suggesting that if one were to view these towers from that vantage, they might be impressive views.
A third area is about 1.5 miles southwest along the main road. Normally I'd have just driven the road and then walked out into the forest to nab the last area. However, this road had also become a muddy mess. I was able to drive down from the first two areas but I did a lot of slipping and sliding and spinning of wheels to do it. I decided not to chance fate and parked, meaning I'd have to walk this stretch. Not a problem. I walked beside the road south and west, always trying to find a path of least resistance, but often being forced onto the road by brush. The mud was goopy and sticky and nasty, and it stuck to my boots like tar. Finally, I got to a point due east of the last area. I entered the forest and walked through the moderate cover about 3/10 of a mile. The ground continued to rise ever so consistently, so I went pretty far, almost to the far west edge of the contour area, to be sure I found the highest area. Hail balls from the storm were still in the grass, looking like patches of snow. The weather was clear and cool and rather nice, all things considered. It turned out to be a very enjoyable walk! I returned to my vehicle and got back to the main highway (US-85), where I had enough daylight to get one more easy highpoint in Weston County (Wyoming also) before settling in for the night in Lead.
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(c) 1996, 2004, 2006 Scott Surgent. For entertainment purposes only. This report is not meant to replace maps, compass, gps and other common sense hiking/navigation items. Neither I nor the webhost can be held responsible for unfortunate situations that may arise based on these trip reports. Conditions (physical and legal) change over time! Some of these hikes are major mountaineering or backpacking endeavors that require skill, proper gear, proper fitness and general experience. |