Black Hills National Forest: Little Elk Creek Canyon Trail

Last night we met our friend Nick at the Black Fox Campground in Black Hills National Forest. Today, we had planned a hike to Roughlock Falls, but Nick convinced us to change our plans. Well, our plans ended up changing several times. We ended up going into Rapid City and then heading west towards Wyoming on Interstate 90. Before we would enter into the Cowboy State, we went to Little Elk Canyon for a hike.

During the summer of 2009 I had hiked this trail with a friend, but had failed to bring a camera along to take any photos. I don't believe it's an official trail, so it is not listed in any of the US Forest Service literature about hiking in the Black Hills National Forest.

We arrived at the trailhead just in time for it to rain. At a break in the raindrops, we hit the trail. Pretty quickly we were forced to don our rain jackets.

We stopped everyWe continued to make our way further and further upstream. There were flowers in bloom scattered here and there along the trail.

Eventually the sun came out. The heat and humidity made it feel hot. Sierra thought a swim might feel nice.

Nick got in on the swimming action. The rest of us just watched from the side of the creek.

After attempting a "natural water slide"

Sierra got out of the water and we hiked further up the canyon.

We caught a quick glimpse of a fox and eventually turned around at a point where the going seemed to get a little rougher. It was a pretty quick walk back to the car.