Travelogue: Mt. Coolidge, Black Mountains, South Dakota

I really am almost totally out of Travelogues to share with you, which heretofore had been my Thursday mainstay. Only a week ago the Triad was shivering in quite a chill, with 2 consecutive highs at just 36 degrees. At 4am the temperature spiked to 73 degrees at Piedmont Triad Airport, as we had been enjoying a complete temperature turn-around.

Such was the case for this posting. Mt. Coolidge sits amid the central Black Hills of southwest South Dakota, and has a gated 1-mile gravel road to the summit full of communications towers and powerlines. The gate is understandably locked for the winter...but here it was February 20-something in 2005...but instead of snow and arctic cold, it was 78 degrees the day I made the walk.

The two black specks ahead of me on the road were my two pups, then. With the road blocked and it totally being out of tourist season, we had the place to ourselves. The only mistake I made was not taking along much water...in that very dry air, I not only heated up but evaporated lots of water that I couldn't readily replace...but the Two Amigos and I budgeted what we had as we hiked, knowing there was water back in the car (I always carried a gallon for safe keeping).

It was easier said than done taking pictures and avoiding power lines, which were a dime a dozen, clustered tightly near the peak. I might also add these pictures came from an old digital camera (read small file size) and not my newer razor-sharp cameras; hence they don't enlarge much or well.

That area of South Dakota is prone to wildfires, and there are any number of scar burns throughout the arid, rocky landscape. The area around Mt. Coolidge was no exception.

The fire damage here was from years earlier...yet Nature, ever the resilient one, bounces back, and on occasion you can see some deer or Bighorn sheep grazing lazily away...

In that wonderful silence with only breezes in the pines or the rare lone vehicle on the highway below to break it, you look over the landscape and wonder what it all looked like before civilization arrived...where you would like to hike and explore at your leisure...the opportunities are rather limitless, even today...and especially out of tourist season.

And so we three lazily meandered along the road and around the summit, peering off into all directions, knowing this was a restful time of year for Nature...

..and we accordingly sauntered back down the wide-open and temporarily private road back to the waiting "K9 LIMO"...hoping that just maybe on the way back a Bighorn might let his or her presence be known.

Upper 70s in the Black Hills in February - how incongruously wonderful.

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."
~ Emily Dickinson

"Travelogue: Gingerbread House Competition"

Dateline: Grove Park Inn, Asheville, NC 2007 Gingerbread House Competition

Thought you'd like to see my pics from this year's Gingerbread House competition, which The Grove Park Inn (Asheville, NC) hosts annually...ABC's Good Morning America has covered it for years in one of their broadcasts, as well. I was in Asheville a couple of days ago and just had to go take a look myself; as well, the Inn is decorated to the hilt for Christmas, making the visit all the more worthwhile.

Most of the houses were behind glass, so photographing them was a bit of a challenge; nothing a steady hand and light-balancing couldn't handle, of course. Too, I thought you might like to know a little bit about the 'construction' rules before you see the detailed works ahead...

"Materials" section of the rules:
"Except for the base, entries must be made primarily of gingerbread and composed of completely edible products. Edible materials are not limited to sweets. No artificial display materials, such as styrofoam or interior lighting, are to be used in the construction of the house. Candies must be unwrapped and free of any inedible materials (such as lollypop sticks)."

With that said, here are some of my favored pics from this year's entrants (from all age categories):

(CLICK ON PICS TO ENLARGE)















...and now for the 2007 Grand Prize Winner...

Maybe you're like me and think 'there sure are a lot of people with a lot of free time on their hands..."!

Bon appetit!

"Travelogue: Lead, S.D. 1994"

Well, I've basically exhausted my good travel photo files, and of late haven't been taking many shots...scraping the proverbial bottom of the barrel. At least for this Thursday's post I thought you'd like to see a little bit of snow from the Black Hills of South Dakota...one of those "you'd better be careful what you wish for!" kinds of things. Part of a record setting year for snow, I might add...


These are not my photos...a viewer whose name I have long since forgotten had brought the photos by the station for me to scan and use.

To set the stage, Lead (long 'e' as in leader) rubs elbows with the more famous Deadwood in the northern reaches of South Dakota's Black Hills. Very colorful history, Deadwood, made even more infamous with the so-named HBO series. They are known for notoriously monster snows, and these pics came from one of those dumpings back in 1994.


In fact, the 1993-1994 winter was the snowiest on record in Lead, totalling 364.7". They annually average close to 193" as it is. That's a lot of snow to be living in.

Think Snow! Heck, Think Precipitation! This is no time to be picky!

"Travelogue: Crazy Horse Memorial, Black Hills, SD"

Apologies for this temporary format - swamped by weather work and other technical difficulties, as well as a flute performance later, so not sure when I can spend the time to write my normal discourse for blog posting....

These are my pics from the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a well-known destination for tourists and locals, alike. When completed, the 'sculpture' will dwarf Mt. Rushmore only a few miles away.

Because I don't have the writing time, I've got a few links for you if you want to read more:

Crazy Horse Memorial

(Tuh-SHOON-kah WIT-ko)
"Crazy Horse"

I don't even know where to begin on how to impress upon you the importance of this warrior to the Lakota Nation...the purpose of the sculpture, direction of his pointing, etc. is tied into the quote below. Too, not everyone, including Lakota, thinks this is such a worthwhile endeavor. You have to wonder if Crazy himself would even approve of it. Personally, I do not favor such alterations of nature, no matter the 'message'. I simply don't care for the Stone Mountains and Mount Rushmores of this world. I do like their 'vision' of a college to be built there, however, and the museum displays are absolutely wonderful.


Video Postcard link



Lots of neat sculptures and excellent art/museum displays abound throughout the modern buildings at the Memorial...

Where Crazy Horse is buried no one knows...though I have a strong feeling that a rare few elders in a secret Lakota group may have a good idea. In itself that's not imporant. Another giant among the Lakota was Black Elk, Hehaka Sapa...his quote below a worthy one...

"Travelogue: Winter At The Rapid City Dog Park"

OK, so this isn't one of my normal 'journeys' to a land of pretty vistas, but I thought you'd like a taste of a neat sense of 'community' I found out in Rapid City, South Dakota. Braeburn Park is this wonderful leash-free dog park along Rapid Creek, and even in the depths of winter we had celebratory gatherings (yes, those are party hats on some pooches)...

True to form like any place where dogs and owners mingle, everyone knew every dog's name, but people's names, ah, they came and went with the prarie winds. "Oh, you're Sandy's mom! Nice to meet you!" "Hello, dad of Keeyah - nice day, eh?" Periodically, somebody would hold an impromptu birthday party for their 4-leggeds, regardless of the weather...and there were always willing participants!

I do remember Jim Hough, a gentleman through and through, whose brace of Newfoundlands were rather perfectly suited for the cold and snow...they reveled in it, no less. If it all looks very cold to you, rest assured...it was. But you get used to it, like you get used to any place you plant yourself for a while.

Another Jim, whom I called Pharmacist Jim, had this lanky pup named Baby...you'd think with about the 1.2% body fat on her that she'd be freezing out there, but she LOVED being out and romping around...even with an icicle moustache temporarily glued on...

Baby did make one exception, however...she chose to just stand on the frozen creek bank and intently stare at the bright yellow tennis ball on the other side of the creek...making sure it went nowhere. She was wise not to venture into the icy waters at those temperatures, and remembered her Braeburn Tao well: "Another day, another ball."

Reflections can be fun to seek out...this one below reminds me a little of a Bev Doolittle style of painting, as I see a stylized thunderbird or other streaking raptor in the icy mirror.

And so there were always neat things to look at...the frozen nature of snow and ice against the eternal rush of Rapid Creek...

...and the pseudo-cave-like formations where flowing water coated pillars of ice with spray which froze...not unlike the permament formations at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone.

Some people see the ice and snow as a time to stay indoors and sit tight. But quite a few of us saw it as an opportunity to gather and let our pups scamper and cavort and play snow-chase 'til their pads had had enough...and occasionally let 'em eat cake! Good ol' Braeburn Dog Park and all its stewards...

"Travelogue: Blue Ridge Parkway, October 21, 2007"

(click on pics to enlarge)

Welcome to a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, roughly between ~MP (milepost) 370 (Craggy Gardens picnic area) to ~MP 345 (Highway 80), both north of Asheville, NC. Sunday, October 21, was a sunny and warm day, with nary a cloud in the sky...

...with 2-legged crowds out the wazoo!, As I always try to do, I kept those humanoids hidden from my photographs!

Most of this stretch is in the Black Mountains of the Blue Ridge, home to Craggy Gardens and Mt. Mitchell, the latter of which is the highest elevation east of the Rocky Mountains. The above pic is from the southeast flank of Mt. Mitchell...

Oh, the color gods are decrying a dull leaf change this year...please don't waste your time telling me that...the highest elevations were past peak (Craggy Garden peak below) , but the 4500-foot levels were stunning (above)...

The Black Mountain range was so named because of the density of spruce and related evergreens, which give the highest peaks a very dark appearance...of course, between acid rain and the Woolly Aphid infestations, many of the evergreen forests are under attack and dying at a rapid rate...

Still, the beauty remains, especially where the dark greens mix in with the other rich fall foliages...

The sun was bright and warm, and the shadows rather pronounced and harsh...with the sun at my back, the photos came easily...

But with the sun at my side, well...it was almost a no-win situation resolving the significant difference in exposure values for the hazed hills versus the colored foreground...

One of my favorite stomping grounds is Linville Gorge, pictured in the horizon below, taken from the south flank of Mt. Mitchell. The two pointed 'peaks' are Hawksbill Mountain (left) and Table Rock (right), both on the east rim of Linville Gorge proper...

Aw, enough jawin', already...just enjoy the pics, and be prepared to answer the following trivia question at the end: Mt. Mitchell was named after Dr. Elisha Mitchell who died one night bushwhacking down the north side of the mountain on June 27, 1857...so what was the name of the peak before it was named after him?



(the above three shots were from the south flanks of Mt. Mitchell and the Black Mountains)

The answer to the trivia question? Black Dome.

Ya learn somethin' new every day, eh? Enjoy the Moment of Now!