Black Elk Peak

This morning we woke up, ate breakfast at our hotel, packed up and made the drive into Custer State Park to hike up Black Elk Peak via the standard route (Trail 9). Today would be my fifth time ascending Black Elk Peak, though it was my first time hiking up it since it was renamed. We parked at the mostly empty trailhead, put on our boots, and hit the trail bathed in early morning light.

The fall colors are at their peak, or just past peak in the middle elevations of the Black Hills.

The beginning of the trail is pretty easy, and soon we caught our first views of the surrounding terrain.

The forest here is much more open than it was the first time I completed the hike, due to pine bark beetle killing many of the trees. We took a short break at a bench placed by the Highpointer's Club, 

then continued on, starting to ascend a bit to a wonderful view of our destination: Black Elk Peak and the Harney Tower.

Soon, we entered into the Black Elk Wilderness.

Here, the trail descended to a saddle before ascending up to the main ridge. 

The views from the ridge were amazing.

Soon enough we found ourselves at the crux of the hike, the set of stairs that lead up to the Harney Tower.

Rosie did not like the grate stairs and Noelle ended up lifting her with the harness to get her up them. The views from near the tower were awesome!

We found a nice place to eat a snack out of the wind, and then started the descent back to the car.

The brilliant blue sky, cool temperatures and fall colors made the hike wonderful.