Duane and Betty made arrangements at a campground they had been to last year and loved it. So off we went to the Spearfish City Park. A truly amazing setting of about 200 sites nestled under a canopy of trees. The Spearfish Creek, one of the best trout streams in the Black Hills, meanders right through the campground. Miles of walking and bike trails adds a special touch to this location. This was a great place to spend a week and explore the surrounding areas.
Our Camp in Spearfish City Park
Spearfish Canyon is a 1000 foot tall canyon with cascading waterfalls, great hikes and beautiful mountain streams. It’s only about an hours drive from Rapid City.
We took a couple of hikes in the canyon. One to Roughlock Falls and the other down to Spearfish Canyon Falls. Both beautiful hikes.
Spearfish Canyon from the Trail
Below the falls the water is dammed up and the fishing is very good here. The water is super clear and the reflections make a nice photo.
On the trail to Roughlock Falls
The hiking guides up to the falls
The pool along the trail
Upper falls
Stopping to photograph each other
Betty Duane and Mark at Spearfish Canyon Falls
The fishing has been really good. Duane and Mark have gone out each morning and caught many different kinds of fish.
Duane and Mark’s Rainbows
It’s Betty’s birthday and we have celebrated for three days now having great dinners and desserts. Betty treated all of us to a Cool treat at “Cherry Berry Yogurt Shop”
Yogurt Junkies
Spearfish Canyon Lodge
We ended the day with a birthday dinner at our camp. Betty’s daughters and their families came up from Rapid City for the celebration.
Betty’s Family Birthday Dinner
Today we headed up to DEADWOOD. The town attained notoriety for the murder of Wild Bill Hickok, and Mount Moriah Cemetery remains the final resting place of Hickok and Calamity Jane. Betty and Duane treated us to lunch at Kevin Costner’s Midnight Star Casino. We ate at Diamond Lil’s and had a great lunch and enjoyed looking at all the Kevin Costner Movie memorabilia.
Diamond Lil’s at the Midnight Star Casino
Midnight Star Casino
Deadwood, View from Mount Moriah
We walked around the historic town after lunch. The old buildings and the cobblestone streets really make you feel like you have stepped back in time. The shops were just your basic T Shirt shops and some a step below that. There were one or two art galleries as well. It was a beautiful day, we were with good friends; really what more could you ask for.
The casinos in town are very plentiful. Some are very upscale. Deadwood was the First place to have gambling outside of Nevada or Atlantic City. Gambling was legalized in Deadwood in 1989 and immediately brought significant new revenues and development which was the main reason the town decided to bring gambling to this area. It revitalized a slowing economy after I90 bypassed the town in the mid 1960’s plus the town suffered great losses over the years from fires.
Deadwood, South Dakota
The Saloon where Bill Hickok was said to be shot.
Walking the Streets in Deadwood
The Cemetery on Mount Moriah in Deadwood is definitely worth seeing. What amazing History lies here. The grounds are beautiful and so is the view of the town below. It’s a small donation to tour the grounds and there is plenty of parking there, however I would not bring an RV up there. The Cemetery has many different distinct sections in it. There are four different sections in the grave yard labelled Potter’s field, where the graves of unknown people or settlers that came from Ingelside Cemertery were buried without a stone or marker. One section is labelled that Mass Grave site. A fire burned down a lumber mill killing eleven men sleeping there at the time. Another section is labelled the children’s section, due to the large number of children buried in Mount Moriah that died from the typhus, cholera and small pox outbreaks. There are only two Chinese graves left in the cemetery, for Hui ta Fei-Men and a child of Fee Lee Wong, as all the other Chinese buried there were disinterred and sent back to China to be reburied.
In addition there is a veterans section, where many Civil War and Indian War veterans are buried with gravestones supplied by the United States government. Mount Moriah is the burial place of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Seth Bullock, and other notable figures of the Wild West. By tradition, the American flag flies over the cemetery 24 hours a day, rather than merely from sunrise to sunset.
Bill Hickok Grave site
Heading back to Rapid City tomorrow Wednesday the 24th
