during our quick south dakota vaca, fearless mountaineer dan and i (fearful valley-dweller) ventured to the black hills national forest and climbed harney peak, the highest summit in the u.s. east of the rockies. i thought i might perish on the mountain... (okay, sarcasm. mostly.) but we both made it up, down, and around, seven miles total. and i am pleased to say my legs did not fall off, though i feared they might. i left a glove behind on the mountain as a memorial to our traversing. (oops.) start-to-finish it took us under four hours, but that last hour had to have taken at least six. seriously.
^ sylvan lake... the beginning of the trail.
^ it was sunny one minute, then cloudy and blowing snow the next... literally.
^ wops... did i do that?
^ i felt short!
^ and i felt cold... really cold. once i made my glove memorial, especially. it was about 22 degrees when we finished.
^ the trail was snow-covered about three-fourths of the time.
^ you can see harney peak waaaaay off in the distance there - towards the middle, with the little point on top (the watch tower). you have to go around a lot of mountains to get there! (i might have been slightly depressed when i realized how far it was... valley-dweller, remember?)
^ amazing how fast the view changed when the snow started blowing through.
^ manny enjoyed the hike...
^ ...but then, he had free transportation.
^ such cute little trees!
^ manny had a lot of adventures along the way... he'll have his own blog post :)
^ funny-lookin' tree.
^ i feel like this tree is getting tired of standing up all the time...
^ i think this huge rock looks like an angry beaver poking its head up from the trees. but that's probably just me. :)
^ oh goodie, we're not lost.
^ i'm really glad i wasn't around when all these trees decided to fall down...
^ dan dutifully carried our snowshoes... which we never got to use. bummer.
^ empty trails all afternoon except for two other people we met hiking back down.
^ wonder how those rocks got together.
^ blue skies! sunshine! ah!
^ somewhere off in the distance, dan's grandpa has a ranch. you can just barely see harney peak from his land.
^ we can almost see the top! FINALLY.
^ the final steps! ah!!
^ such a pretty [windy] [icy cold] view!
^ the highest spot on the peak :)
^ and who knew there would be birds at 7,242 feet??
^ that's the back of mount rushmore in the distance.
^ so glad the snow went away by the time we reached the top!
^ the cathedral spires, among the needles.
^ the fire lookout tower, which they built in the thirties.
^ adios for now... i think i'll bring a pack mule to take me up next time! that, or make manny carry all my stuff...
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