I love South Dakota. This morning, I woke up early, got ready, and walked into town. The sun was shining (briefly) as I settled into what is already my favorite Spearfish breakfast spot, Blackbird Espresso. I’m sure I’ll be back again for another breakfast before I leave. I spent the rest of the day exploring Spearfish Canyon and a couple of local attractions in Spearfish.
Despite having to dodge some raindrops today, I mainly stuck to my original plan of driving the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, which winds for 20 miles through Spearfish Canyon from Spearfish south to Cheyenne Crossing. The road follows Spearfish Creek through the canyon and makes several waterfalls easily accessible.
One surprising stop I made was a little hard to find: 11th Hour Gulch, so named because the sun only lights the gulch for one hour a day, presumably around 11AM (it was cloudy/rainy while I was there so I was unable to prove my theory). Nevertheless, it was fun to find the relatively hidden entrance to the gulch and walk up into it a little ways. Nearby are the Kissing Rocks. I’ll let you figure out why they are called that from the picture.
The rain delayed my hiking a little, but once I set off from the trailhead, I headed one mile upstream to Roughlock Falls, passing some meadows along Little Spearfish Creek on the way. Roughlock Falls kind of splits into multiple falls near the bottom, and I found those the prettiest, albeit a little hard to capture in a photo.
From Roughlock Falls, I hiked back to the parking area and then kept going in the other direction to Spearfish Falls, another picturesque waterfall near the Spearfish Canyon Lodge.
After sufficiently tiring my legs for the day, it was back to Spearfish to visit a unique gallery: the Termesphere Gallery. Dick Termes paints 6-point spheres depicting various scenes and abstracts in “inside-out views” which then rotate on electric motors. The idea is that you are standing in one place, getting a 360-degree view of everything around you. The gallery has spheres hanging from the ceilings as well as two-dimensional depictions of some of the scenes. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was impressed!
The D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery wasn’t high on my list of must-dos, but I was pleasantly surprised to find myself captivated by the various types of trout, especially after seeing so many trout in Spearfish Creek earlier in the day. I was able to tour a replica of Fish Train #3 (used to transport fish around the country) and the Booth House, named for D.C. Booth, the first superintendent of the hatchery who lived there in the early 1900s.
The rain started again just as I got to my car, which was a good reason to head back to my hotel for a little while. I stopped at REDwater Kitchen for an early dinner of a burger and fries with lemon leche cake for dessert. Dessert was the best part, obviously.
You know when the song says, “Let me root, root, root for the home team”? That’s what I spent one and a half innings doing tonight before a lightning delay during the home game between the Spearfish Sasquatch and Nebraska Prospects. After 45 minutes sitting in my car, the rain let up a little and the sun came out, but the field was covered in puddles. People were milling about and I overheard one woman say they were going to call the game. I typically find myself bored pretty quickly with baseball games so I don’t feel like I missed out on too much, except maybe the fireworks that were supposed to take place after the game. Once the skies cleared, it turned into a nice evening with a rainbow following the storm. I headed back to my hotel and am planning to get a good night’s sleep.
Traveling with Laura 