Much Needed Getaway!

March 21, 2021March 31, 2021 By Megan Miscellaneous

Well, that’s a wrap on our trip to the Hills! Dan and I took a long weekend to venture out to Keystone, SD to have a little vacation, and get away from the everyday hustle and bustle. It was much needed and did not disappoint!

We left Thursday morning, and took on that long drive to the west side of the state. It was about supper time by the time we arrived, so we went to this little sports bar next to our hotel for dinner: Barlee’s. They had a smoker outside and everything was cooked on that. It was pretty tasty!! It was getting dark out by the time we were done eating, so even though we wanted to start exploring already, we opted to stay in, watch a movie and hit the hay early.

We did run into a couple of “friends” on the way back to the hotel after dinner. It started our vacay off on a high note!

A couple of mule deer were hanging out by our hotel and a few got close enough to let me pet them!

Friday morning we got up and hit up Harney Peak, now called Black Elk’s Peak. This has always been a favorite hike of mine, and Dan had never been, so we HAD to hit it up. The weather was beautiful. Could not have asked for a better day. It was sunny, 55 degrees, and no wind. The kicker was that we were still trekking through ankle deep snow! Luckily, enough people had been through already to pave us a path.

There was that snow path we used! It definitely limited how much off trail exploring we could do, but glad we could still make it up! It was also a little funny to be out hiking in tshirts and snow!

After our hike, we needed a nap, so we head back to the hotel to rest a bit, and then we decided to go to Mount Rushmore to hit the little trail there. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of construction going on at the monument right now, so we pretty much just got to take a pic and move on. But it was still worth going!

I’ll take any excuse to get a photo opp with this cutie!

Saturday, we kind of had to play it by ear. We quickly found out how many things WEREN’T open during off peak season, and with the snow, we weren’t sure which trails would be usable. We tried to go for a bit of a walk on the Mickelson Trail, but only made it about 1.5 miles before we gave up because of the deep snow. Should have brought some cross country skis!

We did have an impromptu snow ball fight on the way though!

Eventually, we decided to go do the nature loop at Custer Park, and that did not disappoint! We saw lots of critters, and the Buffalo enjoyed licking the salt off our vehicle!