A little hiking in the Black Hills

On Memorial Day, Chuck suggested we check out some of the hiking trails in Custer State Park.  We were looking for rather short trails (less than 2 miles) and preferably a loop.  We decided to try the "moderate" Stockade Lake trail that was a 1.5 mile loop.

The park's efforts at curbing the spread of the pine beetle infestation was evident immediately.

 

The trail was well-marked with these blue diamonds marking the direction.

 

You could see Stockade Lake at various points along the trail.

Chuck let me take the lead which I enjoyed because I liked looking for the little blue diamond markers to follow. 

 

The first half of the trail was up, up, up.

 

There was not very much undergrowth here like you see in the Smokies; but there was the occasional wildflower here and there.

It was so sad to see all the trees that had been cut to try to stop the pine beetle infestation.

 

At one point on the trail, we looked out and realized that we could see the Cathedral Spires way off in the distance.

 

We headed back down the trail toward Stockade Lake...

...and before we knew it, we had finished the hike.

 

Since the hike didn't take that long to do, we decided to look for another relative short and easy trail to hike.  We drove to Badger Hole and hiked the Badger Clark Historic Trail that was 7/10 of a mile long.

 

It was rated "moderate" but we rated it "easy."

Badger Clark was South Dakota's first poet laureate and he lived in a cabin here where Custer State Park is now located. 

 

There were historical markers along the trail telling about Badger Clark.  Have you ever heard of "The Cowboy's Prayer"?  If you have ever read it, the author was probably listed as "unknown" or "anonymous"; but it was Badger Clark that wrote it.  In fact, many writers copied his work, but Badger just accepted it as a compliment that anyone would want to copy his work.  He lived in this cabin for 20 years until his death with no running water or indoor plumbing and did not own a car or even a horse.  He had to walk about 300 yards down to a stream to get water.  He walked everywhere he went or got a ride whenever he needed to go into town.

Living in the middle of the serene and beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota surely provided much of the inspiration for his poetry.