After a night in Spearfish, South Dakota, we started back toward Denver this morning and decided to cut through the Black Hills en route. Fortunately, we chose to start that journey along Route 14A, which climbs through the scenic canyon of Spearfish Creek, lined with sheer cliffs of Mississippian limestone; several beautiful waterfalls adorn the canyon, one of which, Roughlock Falls, is a complex series of cascades at the head of Little Spearfish Canyon, perhaps the most beautiful location in the Black Hills.
After passing through Lead, we continued southward on U.S. 385, passing through some of the least developed regions of the National Forest and purposely avoiding some the popular tourist sites (which we have visited in the past). Finally dropping from the Black Hills uplift, south of Wind Cave National Park, we crossed the rolling terrain of the Missouri Plateau, drained by the Cheyenne and White Rivers.
Just south of Chadron, Nebraska, we climbed through the Pine Ridge Escarpment and continued southward across the High Plains, highlighted by a westward extension of the Nebraska Sandhills, south of Alliance. After crossing the broad North Platte Valley, we stopped for the night in Sidney, Nebraska; we'll return to our Littleton farm tomorrow and finally confront the ongoing heat wave in Colorado.
After passing through Lead, we continued southward on U.S. 385, passing through some of the least developed regions of the National Forest and purposely avoiding some the popular tourist sites (which we have visited in the past). Finally dropping from the Black Hills uplift, south of Wind Cave National Park, we crossed the rolling terrain of the Missouri Plateau, drained by the Cheyenne and White Rivers.
Just south of Chadron, Nebraska, we climbed through the Pine Ridge Escarpment and continued southward across the High Plains, highlighted by a westward extension of the Nebraska Sandhills, south of Alliance. After crossing the broad North Platte Valley, we stopped for the night in Sidney, Nebraska; we'll return to our Littleton farm tomorrow and finally confront the ongoing heat wave in Colorado.
