Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota

We were up early, as usual, and had the camper packed up and headed to Spearfish Canyon today. The drive was another scenic by-way with breathtaking scenery. I wish I could capture what I saw perfectly and share it with others, but it would be hard to do. We did drive slowly to capture the beauty and stopped at the known go-to spots such as Bridal Veil Falls and Roughlock Falls.

I was mesmerized by the clear water at one of the pull-offs for Spearfish Creek.

We went into Deadwood South Dakota, but just did a drive-through as we didn’t see anything that particularly caught our eye, and we were ready to keep traveling to see what we might pass.

In Spearfish South Dakota we saw a sign for a fish hatchery and decided to check it out. It was worth the stop. It was called the DC Booth Historic Established in 1896, D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery. It was established in 1896 to reproduce trout, stock the mountain streams, and increase the trout population in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming.

The Hatchery closed in the 80s and reopened with a new mission and partnerships to help preserve the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s historic and cultural heritage.
They have many things to see on their beautiful campus, including their trout runs with trout at various stages. Beautiful ponds stocked with trout and ducks. You could buy fish food to feed the trout. They were well-trained as we quickly learned you could just throw your hand like you were throwing food, and they would all flail around trying to get it. I kind of felt guilty for tricking them, but not guilty enough to have bought any food. I am sure they were well-fed.

They also had a museum that housed the largest collection of fisheries artifacts in the country. It was very interesting to see the history of fish hatcheries. They had a rail car as well, which was used to move fish from the hatchery to lakes and streams with a discussion on how they kept the fish alive. They also had a large aquarium viewing area.

We made lunch in the camper and sat at a picnic table on the park grounds for lunch. It was a little cool, so Chip had to pull the picnic table into the sun. It was a very nice city park and even had a campground, but it was too early in the day to stop.

We later found a nice campground for the night, Reuters National Campground in Sundance Wyoming. The cost was $10.00. It was only about 45 minutes away, so we arrived early and decided to enjoy the evening and relax. There were only two other campers in the entire campground so it was easy to find us the perfect spot among some trees, in the back of the campground. We put up hammocks and kicked back and relaxed.

Now, it didn’t immediately start off as relaxed as my crazy husband, decided to put our hammocks up like the younger folks. He put his above mine. We did have a good laugh as he tried to get into it, but I can not say it was relaxing as I was a bit nervous looking up and thinking what if the rope did not hold.

He eventually took his down from above my head and tied it up in another tree, but I don’t think he spent much time in it. Chip doesn’t spend much time sitting still anywhere.

Chip cooked dinner, and we decided to go for a hike. Like most National Forest, the trails were plentiful and beautiful. We were hoping we would see a bear, okay, I was hoping to see a bear, but we did not, but we did see some deer. We walked along the Sundance Trail System at the Reuter Trailhead.

Though we had rested all afternoon, we were still ready for bed and a good night’s sleep.

Tomorrow we head toward Cody, Wyoming.