Don't Call Me Ishmael: Around the Black Hills

From Mt. Moriah Cemetery, Deadwood

The wrong bison to eff with

When the big scenic spots of the Black Hills pass by, the scenery does not relent.

Every swing through Hill City, at its geographic center, feels fast. The town includes the state railroad museum and was where archaeologists discovered the famed complete tyrannosaurus skeleton known as Sue (named for the paleontologist who found the fossil, Sue residents in Chicago’s Field Museum). The sun didn’t last long after the second pass through Hill City.

Route 385 climbed as it wound north toward Deadwood. The splendor would continue – soon we came upon another massive, frozen lake in the high country. Pactola Reservoir still sat under layers of marbled ice. Here the wind roared at a much higher pitch but preventing long visits above its waters. We crossed the dam and stepped out long enough for a few shots of the artistic ice.

Pactola Reservoir

The wind howled across this massive reservoir. Below the lake and dam lies the remains of Pactola, a mining town that sat along Rapid Creek before the dam backed up the waters. Pactola Reservoir was frozen solid or would be for another week.

Wild Bill statue

Calamity Jane's gravestone

An early Deadwood death

At a crossroads comes the choice of Lead (with a strong “e”) and Deadwood. Lead is home to one of the world’s most productive mines, now used for research. But Deadwood was the clear draw. Sitting in a gulch, the city rises up the incline, with the commercial district along the creek at the bottom. Numerous historic houses stand as the road snakes upward.

At the top, the dead get the best view of Deadwood from Mount Moriah Cemetery. Impressive black iron gates frame the cemetery, which offers a workout to anyone who enters. Fortunately two of the most-visited graves are not deep into the many rows of tombstones.

The wind proved too much after the short walk to the graves of Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane, the latter buried next to Wild Bill as a joke since he was not fond of her. I could not fathom more time in this cold, not enough to find Reverend Smith or the graves of Seth and Martha Bullock, which are outside of Mt. Moriah’s grounds at the top of the hill. Cold as Deadwood was, the commercial district was busy due to a cork and cask bar-hopping event. That dashed plans to grab lunch in town. I did not want to wander around in the cold, so after a quick pass of the Bullock Hotel, we headed down the canyon toward Sturgis.

Aside from hunger, I had no reason to go to Sturgis, but there I was. I knew its motorcycle rally reputation; ut falls in early August and ensures I can never visit the Black Hills on my birthday. The town leans into that biker reputation year-round, with far more motorcycle-themed everything than any place I have visited. Harley Davidson and Indian Motorcycle shirts seemed like standard attire. Dealerships for every motorcycle brand, all too many motorcycle-themed bars and eateries – Sturgis went all-in.

No Seth Bullock, but his famed hotel

But Sturgis has a stellar craft brewery on the east end of town that with excellent services that offers a solid menu of everyday beers and flatbread pizzas. I left Sturgis Brewing Company with a six-pack of their Pioneer Porter, a satisfying pour.

We were close to Rapid City and an early return to the hotel loomed. Then a seldom-seen roadside attraction popped into view. It might have been a bigger draw in past generations. It gets slight mention among Black Hills attractions.

Among all this forest lies a surprise 120 million years old. The petrified forest lies along the ridges above the Elk Creek Resort, a series of cabins in the hillside near tiny Piedmont. The road rises steeply above the resort into the woods that house the Black Hills Petrified Forest. For $7 a person, the petrified forest seemed like a good risk.

We found a wonderful hilltop tour through the petrified cypress trees that covered the Black Hills before the Age of Dinosaurs. The trail covers cypress stumps, section trunks that would have stood more than 100 feet tall. The trail lasts three-fourths of a mile and the resort provides a map of the major petrified sites along the route.

An impressive amount of the forest remained in situ. But a lot of petrified wood was moved when the gift shop/museum and parking lot were constructed. Some of it is stacked in a wood pile, looking ready for the fireplace but each log turned to stone millions of years ago. Bear Butte, a massive mesa north of Sturgis, dominated the view to the west, with the city in the foreground.

On the edge of the Black Hills, far from the main destinations, the surprises rolled onward in a forest turned to stone.