After much driving yesterday, our focus today turned to hiking. We started with the base trail around Devil’s Tower which we enjoyed immensely. It is a place of great spiritual significance to Native Americans and home to many birds which fill the air with song. The Vore Buffalo Jump is an archeological site in Crook County, Wyoming and our next destination. A sinkhole, formed where gypsum soil was eroded, leaving a steep-sided pit about 40 feet deep and 200 feet in diameter. Native American hunters would stampede bison into the pit, which was deep enough to kill or disable them. Used between 1500 AD to about 1800 AD, archeological investigation estimates place the number of buffalo remains at 20,000.

After a delightful lunch in Spearfish we explored the canyon of the same name. There we visited Bridal Falls, Spearfish Falls, Roughlock Falls, and made an extended hike to a local swimming hole featuring a natural rock slide. The hike is up a very narrow canyon and it is necessary to cross the stream within it dozens of times. After our first few attempts at dry crossings we decided it would be easier if we just walked through the water with our shoes on. Jeanine is pictured below traversing a tricky section of the “trail” by clinging to the canyon wall and sidestepping along a narrow ledge.

By evening we had returned to Rapid City, exploring the old downtown and enjoyed dinner at a restaurant on the Main Street Square where hundreds were gathered for “Movies Under the Stars” night. The free film featured this evening was The Boxtrolls.