Black Hills, SD

We camped in a USFS camp ground in the Black Hills where the camp hosts were from Texas. They told us they had decided to be the hosts with another couple, and the other couple copped out. They came May 10 and will stay until September 10 or so, work 6 1/2 days a week, often 10-12 hours per day cleaning the 58 campsites and the pit toilets. It's really hard work. Also at the campground we met this nice family from London, Ontario with two kids who could really throw Darwin's disc and were very enamoured with him. A match made in heaven. The lake had a sandy beach and Bob went swimming before dinner.

In the morning we decided to take a hike because I was finally over my cold and felt like I could take a serious walk. We went to Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park and took two walks. The first, 1.2 miles round trip was up to Little Devil's Tower. The area is granite and the view from the top (see photo at left) was wonderful. It was also finally a clear day. Darwin made it almost all the way to the top, but finally there was too big a step and we went on without him.


We then hiked a quarter mile over to Sylvan Lake and headed down Sunday Gulch. The lady at the Visitor's Center said that the first half of the hike went steeply down a canyon and the last half followed the road through the forest. We decided we would go only half way and return the same way. The trail had these metal guard rails (see photo at left) going down this very steep canyon. The water was quite high so in various places the concrete steps were covered with water. After going steeply down, the trail leveled out a little, then went down even more steeply. We finally turned around and came back up and went around the other side of Sylvan Lake to get a cold soda. It was about 2 p.m. and we were also hungry and the pizzas looked good, but we continued back to Snoopy, headed down the road to a picnic area and got out our lunch.

We have discovered that it is so easy to set Snoopy up, that instead of packing a lunch, we just stop and take everything out of the refrigerator and storage and make our lunch at a picnic table. Other than the few meals noted (from either "Road Food" or the "Road Tripping"), we've been cooking our meals. More on that later.
Sylvan Lake. This is a very popular place with paddle boats, kayaks, people fishing, peddle kayaks with outriggers, and people walking around the lake. The parking lot was packed. There's also a lodge nearby.