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.
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.
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.
Wow, seems like Sierra is almost grown! Beautiful place. HAPPY NEW YEAR
ReplyDelete