When visiting the South Dakota Black Hills you don't want to miss also
visiting the Devil's Tower National Monument in North Eastern Wyoming. It's
a less than 2 hour drive from Custer or you can drive the beautiful
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway which will take about an hour longer as it's a
scenic road with some waterfalls, the historic town of Deadwood and more to
see along this way.
On our last trip we took the Scenic Byway to Devil's Tower and visited all
the sights/Deadwood along the way, this time I wanted to arrive at Devils
Tower sooner because I wanted to hike Red Beds Trail so instead we
took the quickest route to get there but on the way back we took the Scenic
Byway.
We found
Red Beds trail head just uphill from the visitor's center. It just happened that
we took the trail counter clockwise which I afterwards read is also
the recommended way and I was so glad that we went this way!
The hike starts with a walk through a beautiful but narrow meadow trail
which did scare me quite a bit as I am terrified of rattlesnakes and they
are very common here. There were areas where the grass reached my hips or even higher and the trail was so narrow at times! But we were lucky once again and didn't come across a rattle snake although you could here them occasionally.
Next to the trail is this beautiful view of the valley down below and you can see Belle
Fourche river.
I'm wearing one of my Athleta hiking shorts again (the Dipper Style) which
is now discontinued, but you can find selected sizes on Poshmark otherwise
the newer style (the
Trekkie) is available from Athleta. (They do come in
Bermuda
lengths too if that is your preference as did the discontinued Dipper style
- find those on Poshmark).
Below is a good view of what the trail looked like. In several parts it was
more narrow than this and sometimes the grass was a high as my hips. But
those weren't the parts where I would stop for photos.
This view is behind you if you go counter clockwise so if you take the
trail clockwise it will be just as beautiful but will be much more
exhausting as there is barely any shade in this part of the trail.
We saw several of these beautiful caterpillars along the way. They were
about 4 inches long.
The beautiful views never stopped! There was a cave up here but I was too
afraid of snakes to climb up there to investigate.
Related:
This might be my favorite photo from this trail!
Here we were approaching the red rocks after which the trail is named. I
think this is about halfway around.
Not having a lot of shade was exhausting!! It was a hot July day but at least
it wasn't humid! Definitely start this trail as early as possible and bring
plenty of water!
I was SO happy when we finally approached this forested area! I needed some
shade badly and I was running low on water! We all could have used an extra
bottle of water!
Would you believe even though we forgot to apply bug spray none of us got
bitten by any bugs!! Maybe they just weren't around at this time of the
day!
A legend...
Even though this trail was only about a quarter of Black Elk Peak Loop trail I
felt just as exhausted. But it was so worth it and I highly recommend! Maybe
you can choose a day when it isn't this hot! But truly a must hike trail when
visiting Devil's Tower.
Related:
Did you know, Devils Tower was the very first National Monument of the
United States? Devil's Tower National Monument is part of the National Park
system so you can use the "America the Beautiful" pass (which is free for US
military and veterans).
It was early afternoon when we drove away from Devils Tower so decided to take
the the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway back to Custer.
Along the way we took the short trail to Roughlock Falls.
My daughter came across this snake along this trail. It was probably a Bull
snake. Glad I didn't see it in real life as I had already passed this area and
was gone when we walked back.
This cute squirrel was about the size of a chipmunk!
The Falls are below. This photo doesn't do it justice. It's hard to see the tall
waterfall coming down in the back and then spreading out over the rocks. I love
the moss covered rocks.
On the way back to the parking spot I came across this spider web and thought it
was absolutely beautiful. (No I am not a fan of spiders!!)
We also stopped in the historic town of Deadwood but didn't take many picture
there and I really enjoy nature so much more so we only stopped for a short
visit. (We spent a bit more time here on our first visit to this area).
If you missed my other posts about our trip out west and would like to see
them, you can read those posts
HERE,
HERE and
HERE. They are all photo heavy with nature pictures fo various hikes. If you do
want to plan a visit to the Black Hills, you might want to skip a visit during
the
Sturgis Motorcycle rally
which takes place each year in the beginning of August for 10 days (think it
starts the first Friday in August) and this area will be extremely busy during
that time!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my travel
pictures and maybe I inspired you to visit this area too if you haven't
already!
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