Yellowstone National Park’s Undine Falls: Dine, then Undine

There are nine hundred miles of hiking trails in Yellowstone National Park. We hiked about twenty of those miles in the four days we spent in the park. Why so few? Easy. There's a lot to see in this 2.2-million square acre park. This was the first trip to Yellowstone for any of us, and …

Devils Tower and the Red Beds Trail: Close Encounters of the Natural Kind

"Well I guess you've noticed ... something's a little strange with dad" ~ Roy Neary, after sculpting Devils Tower out of mashed potatoes in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" It is impossible to look at Devils Tower without thinking about Close Encounters of the Third Kind. At least for my generation. Stephen Spielberg's 1977 …

The Custer Wolf Restaurant: Good Food and a Surly Todd

The Sunday Gulch Trail (read here) had taken a little bit out of us, so we headed into the town of Custer, SD to find some post-hike chow. We found The Custer Wolf Restaurant. It was a beautiful day, and Custer Wolf had outdoor seating. We were greeted promptly, and a server soon took our …

The Sunday Gulch Trail: Grasping in the Gulch

What were we grasping, you ask? Handrails! The decent down Sunday Gulch is steep, uneven ... and exciting. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Through the fissure The Trailhead I could have called this post "Gasping in the Gulch" as this was to be the most elevation I would climb since summiting Mt. Everett in …

Custer State Park’s Sylvan Lake: This Lake Can’t Be Real

When I saw Sylvan Lake, my jaw dropped. Literally. My first impression was that this could not be real. The scene was a mirror-smooth lake backed by massive formations of seemingly sculpted stone that looked every bit as if it belonged at Disney World, a secret lagoon created by a team of Imagineers. The only …

Custer State Park’s Lover’s Leap Trail: Pit Viper in a Poison Ivy Patch

Custer State Park. Never heard of it? Me neither. That was my bad. South Dakota's first and largest state park, Custer contains the most beautiful small lake I've ever seen, which I will write about in the weeks to come. This post is about the first hike we took in this gold-star Dakotan state park. …

Badlands National Park’s Window and Notch Trails: The Window to My Sole

The morning after our Castle Trail hike, we were up and at the trailhead by 6:00am. Why? To see sunrise from the Window Trail. Was it worth it? Of course. I was in a national park - what else should I be doing? For those of you who like to sleep in on vacation, read …

Badlands National Park’s Castle Trail: Good Hike in a Bad Land

The Trailhead Good hike? Try great hike! If you haven't been to The Badlands, you need to make sure it's on your short list. And when you get there, don't just drive the Badlands Loop Road - get out and head on into those beauteous buttes and palatial prairies. If it sounds like I enjoyed …

Harmon Lake: Let Me Be Plains

This was about as plains as you could get. First, it was smack-dab in the middle of the Great Plains state of North Dakota. There were plains in every direction. It was plainly plains. Was this a plain-Jane hike? Clearly Plainly not. It was Independence Day, and I was celebrating our nation's break from the …

Willow River State Park: Beautiful Cascades and Underwhelming Overlooks

It was day two of my journey to Wall, SD to meet my wife and stepdaughter. On the previous day, I left Sturgeon Bay, hiked the Dells of the Eau Claire, and ended the day's travels just outside the Twin Cities, on the east bank of the Saint Croix River. Despite being just twenty miles …