Black Hills National Forest: Christmas Tree 2020

 After our hike of Little Devil's Tower, it was time to go pick out the Grunwald Family Christmas tree for 2020. I found a map online that showed where there were high concentrations of spruces and so we headed in that direction. The first road we followed we were not very successful. We decided to continue on the section of the Needles Highway that is open in winter and found a paved pull-off with a nearby grassy, logging road. I scouted out the logging road and thought it looked like a likely location to find our tree, so I went back to the car to get Noelle and Sierra. 

Together we hiked along the closed road and checked out a few different specimens, before we found "the one." 

Custer State Park: Little Devil's Tower Hike

 We decided to head up to the Black Hills today to get the Grunwald's 2020 Christmas Tree. Since we were driving so far, we naturally had to do something else while we were there and so we decided to go for a hike in Custer State Park. The perfect hike, not too far a distance to hike at just over 3 miles round trip, was the Little Devil's Tower Trail. I had hiked it before, a long time ago, but I thought it might make sense to revisit it.

After picking up our Christmas Tree permit in the town of Custer, we made the drive into the state park and parked at the trailhead not too far from Sylvan Lake. With pleasant late November weather, the trailhead was pretty busy. After the logistics of getting ready, we hit the trail. Almost immediately, we came to an old mine adit and had a quick look inside.

We continued on the trail, passing through alternate open, grassy areas, and more wooded places.

There were lots of interesting rock formations to see, 

and of course Sierra had to take a few breaks to admire them. 

We headed further and further up the trail and the scenery seemed to get better and better.

Eventually, we came to a trail junction, where we turned to the left to climb to Little Devil's Tower. The views really opened up on this trail.

At a point the trail seemed to dead-end inside a shallow canyon near the top of a ridge. I believe this is where my hike ended last time I had been here. However, I noticed some blue blazes painted on the rock at this point and so Sierra and I followed them. It involved a lot of scrambling, but Sierra really seemed to enjoy it.

The views of the Cathedral Spires from the summit of Little Devil's Tower were awesome!

Sierra and I enjoyed the view for a bit,

then we made our way back down 

to where Noelle and Rosie awaited. Noelle wanted to have a chance to make the ascent, and Sierra liked the scramble up, she decided to do it all over again. Rosie and I found a sunny spot to wait for them.

When they returned we retraced our steps back to the car to head out and find our Christmas Tree.

Devil's Backbone Open Space: Wild Loop Trail

 After checking out the Benson Sculpture Garden, we returned to Devil's Backbone and immediately found a parking spot. We hit the trail, 

passing lots of people. This place is very popular. The trail is a loop and we took the eastern half first. There were nice views over to the backbone and out to the distant mountains. 

At about the half-way point on the trail, it starts to turn back to the south and heads closer to the backbone. There was a short ascent up to a natural arch known as the "Keyhole".

From certain angles, you can see Long's Peak and Mount Meeker through the Keyhole. We enjoyed the view for a few minutes and then moved on to allow other visitors a chance to enjoy the view. The hike back stayed closer to the backbone and was a little bit more interesting than the hike into the arch.

Benson Sculpture Garden

We headed down to Loveland, Colorado this morning to hike the popular Devil's Backbone. Unfortunately, upon arrival, the parking lot was full and so we ended up needing an activity to kill some time. We ended up checking out the Benson Sculpture Garden and are really glad we did! Here's a look at some of the sculptures we saw:

There is a park and playground bordering one section of the garden. We allowed Sierra to play for a bit,

ordered burritos online, and then ate lunch at a picnic table. Then we continued checking out parts of the sculpture garden that we had previously missed.