Winter Safari

Jan 15, 2020

By Christian Begeman

As the years have gone along, a new holiday tradition has emerged — the drive. When you work 8 to 5 in the winter months in South Dakota, it becomes difficult to get out and enjoy the landscapes in the sunlight. So, when I finally get a few days off for the holidays, I’ve made it a point to schedule extra travel days — a full day to make what normally would be a four-and-a-half-hour drive on the way out and a couple more days to take an even wider loop on the way back. It’s my way to enjoy the scenery under the winter sky, to watch the vistas slip by beyond the windshield and get lost in vastness.

This year, I cut across the bulk of the state on Christmas Eve using Highways 10 and 12. There was significant fog, so once it became light enough to see, the landscape was a frosted winter wonderland. Near Houghton, I spied pheasants and deer and stopped to get a photo or two. The frost continued all the way through Walworth County, where I stopped at a favorite country church just outside of Selby to capture the frosted trees framing the rural steeple.

After the Christmas festivities, I began the long and completely out of the way journey back by heading towards the southern Black Hills. It is raptor season along the highways and byways of West River country. The number of hawks and eagles perched along the roads were too many to count. In Dewey County, somewhere between Timber Lake and Eagle Butte on Highway 63, I saw a huge Golden Eagle perched on a power pole. Further down the road, I took a detour from the detour and turned into the Foster Bay Recreation Area along the southern arm of where the Cheyenne River meets Lake Oahe. This little drive always seems to be full of wildlife and grand views across the open prairie. On an earlier winter trip to Foster Bay, I watched an eagle drive a yearling dear over a hilltop, trying to get his talons into the deer’s back and have some venison for a meal. No such drama this time around, but there were plenty of deer, as well as a couple juvenile bald eagles perched on a high hill.

My time in the Black Hills was cut short a day by incoming weather, but I still saw the sun rise over Wind Cave National Park with a small herd of bison and cruised the backroads of eastern Custer County on my way to another detour through the Badlands. The sun set on my last day of the winter safari as I drove through the White River breaks near an old, forgotten spot on the map called Stamford. Only a foundation and a crossroads remain. I was tempted to drive south into the White River Valley, prolonging the trip, but clouds were rolling in as the light faded. I reluctantly made my way back to Interstate 90 and headed east. Another holiday had come and gone. Another epic winter drive across South Dakota ended at 80 miles an hour on a four-lane ribbon of road leading home.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he's not working at Midco he is often on the road photographing South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.