"Hiking Day" (or so we thought)

August 5, 2012

We started off this beautiful Sunday morning by eating breakfast at the RV park restaurant, the 7th Cavalry Cafe.  Only our second time eating here, as the portions are so big as to be obscene.   We don't need the calories!  The place was so crowded that we were seated with strangers at a large table.  Jim had a little trepidation about being able to converse on common topics with these folks, but in the end, we had a marvelous time. These folks were locals, had some nice recommendations for us.  Food took forever as the restaurant was soooo busy.  By the time our food arrived, our seat mates were done and gone and a new set of people sat down.   They were from Louisiana and happen to be in the trailer parked next to us.  Again, we had plenty to talk about.  All in all, a fun experience, including the food.

French Creek

Trail Riders

Our intention was to find a beautiful place to hike, so we drove through Custer State Park, cruising "Lame Johnny Road".  Along that way, we came to French Creek (where gold was discovered in South Dakota Black Hills for the first time, right down the road from our RV park) and there was a rutted, dirt track along the creek.  We stopped near the bridge across the creek and parked the truck.  We walked along for about 10 minutes and were overtaken by a batch of horses and riders on a guided trail ride.  So much for a nice, quiet hike!  After they passed, we followed the trail a while longer and had to stop.....the trail crossed the creek and us with no water shoes....oh well.  Got back in the car and drove along.

End of our hike

 Further up Lame Johnny, we came across a small body of water, a pond really, and stopped to take a few pictures.  It was quite pretty, situated with a few pine trees.

The Pond

After we joined the main road again, we came across a really large herd of buffalo surrounded by a large hoard of bikers.....it was quite a sight to see.  Took awhile to work our way through the throng.

The Herd and the Hoard

Bismarck Lake

After dinner, we stopped at a place we have passed numerous times, Stockade Lake, just to check out the shoreline for early evening photos....also hiked up a hill and checked out Bismarck Lake.  Both were beautiful, but didn't thrill either of us enough to come back for photos.






We continued on to the Gordon Stockade historic site.  This was interesting, a "fort" built by a group of people who defied the Treaty of Ft. Laramie (1868) to come to the Dakota Territories to seek their fortunes and look for gold.  Eventually, they were caught and forced to go back East to their homes.  None were procescuted.

Original Part of the Stockade

Half of the Stockade is original construction, the other half was rebuilt to complete the site.  The Treaty of Ft. Laramie gave the Dakota Territories (which included the Black Hills) to the Lakota Indian tribes.  Therefore, the white people who wanted to travel through it or stay needed the Indian's permission to do so.  (There are still lawsuits pending regarding this treaty.)

For a day that started out as just a hiking day, this one was pretty busy!  We made one more stop in Custer State Park today, up a long, winding road to see the Mt. Coolidge Lookout.  It is a fire lookout built on one of the highest points in the surrounding area.

View From Mt. Coolidge Lookout

The Tower at Mt. Coolidge

The views from the tower base were incredible, even though there was a lot of haze on the horizons.   I can only imagine what a clear day would have looked like.  As it was, we could see forever.  This lookout is credited with discovering the 1988 Galena fire that burned over 16.000 acres in Custer State Park.


Nice day all around.