Winter is settling in over the Black Hills, bringing many opportunities for beautiful photography. John Mitchell, Spearfish, has been exploring the frosty nooks and crannies in his neck of the woods. Here are some of his recent shots.
Spearfish Canyon is a favorite fall foliage destination for South Dakotans and out of state visitors. Jerry Boyer, who has tracked the progression of fall colors in Spearfish Canyon for over 20 seasons, says the peak viewing time should be today and Tuesday.
“I do not remember a fall so beautiful. The yellows and golds are so vivid and the reds, oranges and purples so brilliantly plentiful,” Boyer says. “It’s amazing that primarily only four leafy tree-types can create such awesome splendor and excitement. The colorful trees are highlighted by the sharp contrast of the dark emerald-green pine and spruce evergreens.” But Boyer warns to beware of the alluring red leaves near the ground — they are poison ivy.
John Mitchell visited the canyon this past weekend. Here are some of his photos.
The Community Caves of Spearfish Canyon are among the best-kept secrets in the Northern Hills, probably because they are so difficult to reach. The hike is just a half-mile, but it is nearly vertical and the path is strewn with rocks shed from the canyon. Bonny Fleming shared these photos from a recent visit with the Black Hills Photography Club.”Freshly fallen snow and a layer of ice made the hike rather hairy. I think it’s safe to say that no one escaped without at least one slip or slide,” Fleming says.
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway ranks among the most beautiful 20-mile stretches in the USA. The route is a wildly popular fall foliage drive, but its white landscapes in winter are lovely, as well. Next to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, it may be the most photographed place in the Black Hills. Photos by John Mitchell.
It all started with a simple question:”Where is Baker’s Falls?”
It came via our Facebook page from a reader whose curiosity was piqued by our Jan/Feb issue’s cover shot from the Fassbender Photographic Collection. A young man is shown crouched behind a frozen waterfall. The only details are those written on the photograph:”Baker’s Falls, Spearfish Canyon, Black Hills, S.D.”
We called Paul Higbee, our West River correspondent. He’s lived in Spearfish for several years and knows that area better than anyone in the office. After a little investigation, Paul told us he thought the spot was likely a place known today simply as the Ice Caves. He said you could find them high in the rim rock just above Bridal Veil Falls on the left side of the road as you’re driving up Spearfish Canyon.
Case closed. Or so we thought.
Paul called again today to report that our cover shot is generating a lot of talk around Spearfish, and that many of the locals who mention the photograph believe it actually shows the Community Caves during a year in which more water was flowing around the formation. No one seems to know where the name”Baker’s Falls” came from, or even recalls any Bakers from that time and place.
One reader who talked to Paul even remembered a different photo of a frozen-over Community Caves that appeared in South Dakota Magazine a decade or more ago that he says looks strikingly similar to our current cover photo. They are tracking down that lead right now, but in the meantime we thought we’d open it up to our online readers and see if anyone can shed any light on the mystery?
Cleopatra Creek is among the dozens of rivulets that run through the valleys and gullies of the northern Black Hills and empty into Spearfish Creek as it races northward to Redwater Creek. The Cleopatra looks no different from any other creek. However, locals know it as the home to Devil’s Bathtub. Well off the beaten path, Devil’s Bathtub has attracted visitors for decades. Photos by Ryan Clayton, Rapid City. See more of his work at https://www.facebook.com/imagesbyryan
John Mitchell shared these recent photos of a snow-covered Black Hills. View more of his photos on Facebook and at sodakmoments.com.
Spearfish Canyon has so many secrets hidden back in the canyon walls that you wonder if any one person knows them all. After a summer of exploring, this writer is still discovering. On the way to the Black Hills earlier this month we talked with some friends, Mike and Robin Moran of Watertown, who told us about a pretty place in the canyon called Annie Creek Falls. The next day, while having lunch at the Latchstring in the canyon, we learned that our waitress was a South Dakota native and a student at Black Hills State. The pipeline to knowledge about where to hike in the canyon flows through BHSU, so we asked her what favorite unpublished place she liked. Annie Creek Falls was the first one she named, so our next destination was set.
We have an old Jeep Ranger that won’t win a beauty contest anywhere outside of the Ozarks, but it is the vehicle of choice for a trip up Annie Creek Road. The Annie Creek Road sign is the first right past Elmore as you drive north into Spearfish Canyon from Cheyenne Crossing, heading towards Savoy. The road is an old narrow gauge rail bed. As you drive up it you’ll see the remnants of old rail ties, long ago embedded in its floor. Turning around is never an option if you have a full-size vehicle, and is barely an option in a Ranger. The potholes are a definitive test for loose fillings, and there are several times you’ll plow through water holes of indeterminate depths — a free car wash of sorts.
When a spot appears on your right that looks like you can pull over a little, you are there. Across the road, from whence you hear the rushing water, is a trail into the brush — take it. It’s a very short hike to a landing that looks over the canyon below and the water falls to your right. But, the fun doesn’t end there — the adventure has just begun.
To get down to the falls you have three choices. First, you could jump. If you pick that option, don’t bother wasting time snapping a quick photo on the way down — a quick prayer would be more useful. Either of the other two options is marginally safer. To the left you can make short switchback-like cuts as you climb and work your way to the bottom. Be careful — it is treacherous. The left path brings you about fifty yards below the falls. The hike up the creek affords more beautiful views of the area. The option to the right is one we didn’t even see on the way down. This is the shorter and maybe safer route, but it is crawling from handhold (tree root) to handhold (rock ledge) all the way down. The right side route brings you out near the base of the falls — and is clearly the easier route for the hike back up.
The path to the bottom probably deters most, and from a safety perspective, that may be a good thing. But if you are one of those hardy souls that can navigate the way down, the pretty and peaceful creek bottom at the base of Annie Creek Falls is worth the hike. This is the kind of place where people would want to take wedding photos, if they could figure out how to get all the gowns down there in their original color and condition.
The old trail is also the route used by 4-wheelers between Terry Peak and Cheyenne Crossing. A Minnesota group, whose leaders hailed from De Smet, stopped at the falls while we were there. After exchanging the traditional South Dakota greeting:”Where are you from?” followed by”Do you know __?” we discerned that the leader was a cousin of friends of ours from Watertown, and they knew my law school classmate from De Smet, Todd Wilkinson. In South Dakota speak, we had bonded. The 4-wheelers explained to us that there was more to see by travelling further up Annie Creek Road, so the adventure continued.
About a half mile further up the road (where road speeds are about 8 mph on a good stretch), you cross the creek. The road bed has been built up well above the creek, and presumably there’s a big culvert in the brush below, but the driver is well advised to adhere to the biblical directive of staying focused on the narrow path ahead. When you’ve crossed the creek, the”road” ends — but the adventure doesn’t. To the right is a strictly 4-wheeler route to Terry Peak. To the left there are two paths. We took the high road, which is a continuation of the narrow rail bed.
If you hike for about a mile, you’ll come to first one, then another, former railroad trestles. The trestles have been felled, probably to avoid hikers using them to cross the gullies they forded. To get to the second former trestle, you of course need to be crazy enough to hike down, through and up the first trestle gorge. This would be a good point to suggest another whole set of safety disclaimers. But if you have the endurance and lack of good judgment for the trip, it’s a pretty view and a neat crawl through the remnants of Black Hills railroad history.
There’s some”treasure” to be found on the more remote sections of the rail bed, as we learned from a family we met near the first gorge. We came up on a father, mother and son digging in the dirt along the remote rail bed — not exactly everyday behavior. It piqued our curiosity. We learned that they were using metal detectors and shovels to unearth the spikes that had been discarded when the rail lines were pulled up years before. They said that you could even find the old spikes lying on the ground sometimes along the route. My very curious wife, after navigating there and back through two gorges, couldn’t resist digging in the shallow dirt along the trail in several places looking for the hidden treasure — but alas, to no avail.
The hidden gems to hike to in the Hills are worth the time and effort. We hope others will tell us of more of these to explore. Also, the rich railroad history of the Black Hills would be fascinating to explore, if a knowledgeable guide would surface.
Finally, the treasures of the Hills really are there for the taking. On the walk back along the old rail bed, with one of my wife’s steps on the trail came a metallic”clink” sound. There, just waiting to be picked from the ground by the adventurous, was a rail spike — a Black Hills treasure to the memory of Annie Creek.
Lee Schoenbeck grew up in Webster, practices law in Watertown, and is a freelance writer for the South Dakota Magazine website.
“Fast is better” — a TV ad humorously makes the point, and as a society, they’re preaching to the choir. We want internet and cell phone service that is instantaneous, and headache pills that make the pain end in 30 seconds, not 60. Faster sounds better. But when it comes to enjoying Mother Nature, I fall back on the old slogan”speed kills” or at least a modified”speed numbs.” There’s a place in Spearfish Canyon that proves my point.
It’s like having Bruce Wayne or Ali Baba right here in South Dakota. The Eleventh Hour Gulch has a hidden entrance that only the slow and informed will see — while thousands will drive through the Canyon without a clue to the gift they have passed by. If you can see it, you’ll see a waterfall from the highway. Not the big three — Roughlock, Bridal Veil or Little Spearfish Falls — this is the fourth, the smallest, and the hardest to see.
You don’t have to know the Arabic version, “iftah ya simsim,” for the entrance to the Eleventh Hour Gulch to open up to you, but you do have to drive or walk slow. In Spearfish Canyon the creek is on the east side of the highway and its turbulent trek down the canyon is spell-binding, which is the secret to the Gulch’s hidden entrance. In the creek, near milepost twenty, are the Kissing Rocks, two very large rocks in the creek that are touching (“kissing” to the imaginative). Less than fifty yards to the north of the Kissing Rocks, and on the west side of the road (look away from the distracting beauty of the creek!) you will see, for a second, an opening in the foliage — and water falling. If you are driving north you need to drive slow and look backwards to see the narrow break in the shrubbery. If you are driving south, you’ve got a better shot at noticing the entrance.
Armed with directions, we still missed the entrance on our first attempt, because it doesn’t look like there could be a gulch there. We started at a spot a quarter mile down the road, hiked in a mile, and figured that the secret entrance had escaped us. The second effort was worth the time.
When you get through the roadside foliage, you’ll see a narrow space between the rock walls, and water falling over it. The trail is simple: follow the water, hike up. There are places where the gulch is so narrow that you can touch the opposite walls of the canyon at the same time.
The hike would be more difficult if the Gulch didn’t have benefactors. In at least two places, somebody has constructed wooden ladders, and laid them in between the rocks. You’ll even see washed out and destroyed old ladders, a testimony to the persistence and care of the Gulch’s fan club. The trail goes up and beyond for as far as you care to hike, but there is a point where you have obviously climbed as high as the Canyon’s 1000 foot walls.
It’s a short hike over to the rim of the Canyon. This walk shouldn’t be taken by those with vertigo or any kind of fear of heights. This is Mother Nature at her finest — no handrails or guardrails. You are looking 1,000 feet down at roaring Spearfish Creek, as it tumbles through and past the Kissing Rocks. Spearfish Canyon abounds with breathtaking views. Roughlock Falls and the 76 Trail would make most lists, but the view from top of Eleventh Hour Gulch is on that same list, for those who slow down and take the time to find it.
Gold and things precious come in many forms, and their value is largely defined by the seeker. Ali Baba’s gold couldn’t be any brighter or more inspiring than the treasure hidden behind the foliage in Spearfish Canyon. at the entrance to the Eleventh Hour Gulch.
Lee Schoenbeck grew up in Webster, practices law in Watertown, and is a freelance writer for the South Dakota Magazine website.
Located between Savoy and Spearfish in the scenic byway of Spearfish Canyon is an unmarked, semi-secret place to enjoy a hike and a refreshing dip in a mountain stream. Ever since climbing behind the falls at Roughlock became verboten, the Devil’s Bathtub has been the best playground in Spearfish Canyon.
There are no signs disclosing the secret location of the Devil’s Bathtub. Most people that know about it found out from a local. My law school roommate, a Black Hills State grad, told me about it. I quizzed people on the trail this past week, and all were locals, or were told by locals. It’s kind of supposed to be a secret — at least before the Internet, Google and YouTube. Now, it’s a traffic jam to fun.
To get there, pull off the Spearfish Canyon highway at Cleopatra Place. There isn’t a parking lot, but these days there are a lot of cars along the narrow lane — park there. Hike across the bridge over Spearfish Creek and follow the trail to your right. The tributary to hike comes into Spearfish Creek at that point — DO NOT cross it and follow Spearfish Creek. Assuming you don’t make that mistake, you can’t miss the Bathtub. You definitely can’t miss the fun. The”trail” has a range of options — my crew prefers jumping on rocks and traversing fallen logs, but there is always the option of just walking on the dirt path adjoining the creek.
After about thirty minutes of playing and hiking along the creek you’ll come to an area where the creek has cut a smooth swirl in to the rock. It looks like Mother Nature’s water slide. It’s a fun spot to stop and play on the rocks and in the creek. For the first three or four years, we took our family and friends. With me acting like some kind of an informed Sacagawea, this was where the hike ended. We all had fun sliding on the rocks and enjoying our lunches. One year, to our surprise, hikers came down upon us from farther up the canyon! They informed us that, while the spot we had hiked to was indeed fun, it was about 10 minutes short of the actual bathtub! At that point old”Sacagawea” felt a little stupid, but it did mean we now had new places to explore.
A little further up the canyon along the creek, the real Devil’s Bathtub is swirled out of the rock formations, and it definitely entertains. You can swim in the pool, slide down the chutes, or just lower your bottom into the coldest refreshing, rushing water you can imagine. The walls of the canyon at that point are steep — I mean mountain goat-quality steep — and tree covered. The setting is beautiful.
There are little brown trout in the stream and it’s entertaining to watch them jumping the rocks up the stream, like a fish ladder, until they reached a point just too steep to”climb.”
When we pulled up, the parking area was filled. When we left, a van driver had his wife get out and navigate a squeeze play into Cleopatra. I quizzed people while we hiked, because we probably saw at least fifty people along the trail and at the bathtub. Almost everybody had a local connection — they knew somebody that knew the secret. A nephew and his wife met up with us there — both Mines grads who had heard of, but not seen, the Devil’s Bathtub. Having them and their sons with us meant the secret was passed on to another generation.
Former Governor Bill Janklow used to say”a secret is something that you promise to only tell one person at a time.” So if you’re reading this, you need to promise to keep the secret. But if you know of any other secret or unmarked hiking trails in the Hills, fee free to email me the location. Other than to a few close friends of the outdoors, I’ll keep the secret.
Lee Schoenbeck grew up in Webster, practices law in Watertown, and is a freelance writer for the South Dakota Magazine website.
