Spearfish to North Dakota and back

We finally ran into some rain in Spearfish but not before we set up camp and had a nice dinner at the busy city park campground. We were parked on the grass in the shade alongside Spearfish Creek with perhaps 100 motorcyclists and their tents. It seemed they had a rally at the park and all left quickly on Sunday morning. The town in the northern Black Hills gets its name from when the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians speared fish in the creek.



It would have saved a lot of time and gas had I picked up a geocache when I was in North Dakota in 2003. I had no idea a goal would be to geocache in every state at that time, but I only lack three states now. At least the ride up from Spearfish is on a dotted road.



It is also Leon's first time to step foot in the state. We would stay and play but it just isn't on the agenda this week. He has three states to have seen all but Alaska.



In Buffalo there is a lovely Centennial Park which was erected to commemorate 100 years.



The famous rodeo horse Tipperary came from Buffalo and a bronze statue pays tribute to him.




The Crow Buttes, further south, intrigued us with the story of how the Sioux and Crow fought there in 1822. The Sioux had raided a Crow camp and raped the women so the Crow took them to a safe place and went to the hills to have a better vantage point with the Sioux in pursuit. The problem was that they did not have enough water for the dry period so the Sioux just encircled the buttes and waited for the Crow to die of thirst and starvation. Then the Sioux themselves died from diseases they caught from the Sioux.




We went to Deadwood for a couple of hours although it was a misty day and returned to Spearfish.The next morning was beautiful with clear skies and south we went from the Spearfish Walmart down the Spearfish Canyon Road for a pleasant two mile (rt) hike to Roughlock Falls. We were not disappointed. The drive down Spearfish Canyon itself is peaceful and lovely. Much of the movie Dances with Wolves was filmed in the canyon.



White and pinks to purples seemed to be the flower colors for the day while we hiked the trail among the aspens, birch, and Ponderosa pine alongside the creek in the canyon.



We continued on around the loop to Lead and Deadwood.