Following the blue markings

The trail

Oooh... could this be the same granite that Mt Rushmore is carved from??

Yes, this is the official trail.

The view from the top did make it all worth it though. We loitered around for a bit, then began the treacherous climb down.

Harney Peakis the area's tallest mountain at 7,242 feet.

The back side of Mt. Rushmore

Lots o' needles

A close-up of the rock...

... even closer.

Ok... so it was LOT easier for him to get up here!

It would have been a lot quicker down had I not lost sight of the arrows and taken the wrong path. After making my way down a narrow steep cleft, I found myself stranded on the top of a 10-foot ledge.... just a bit too high to jump. That meant I had to climb all the way back up and start again. But, fate must have sent me this way on purpose, for while sitting and debating what to do, I noticed a moth that had fallen into a small pool of water. It was still alive but had no energy left (or hope) of freeing itself. I pulled the poor bedraggled thing from its potential watery grave and it quickly began trying to get itself upright to dry off. Perhaps someday it will return the favor.

Approaching the ledge

The ledge from below, after I had backtracked.

It was absolutely amazing how life will find a way.

Eek! And I thought my ledge was bad!

Back down though the ravaged area...

A sign finally gives the answer: In 2009-2010, 18,500 beetle--infested ponderosa pine trees were flown out by helicopter to local sawmills. Why not just leave them? 1) the trees can still be used to make wood products, thus sparing healthy trees; 2) removing the trees with the larvae inside stops the adults from emerging into the forest; 3) there is less fuel on the forest floor for a wildfire. Why helicopter? Due to the steep terrain, traditional logging methods were unable to remove many of the trees.

As for why this hike was called Little Devil's Tower, we decided this pitchfork-shaped tree would just have to suffice.

A chipmunk stops for lunch.

Some cinquefoil escapes the apocalypse of the flower-plucking child.

Our final stop for the day was Sylvan Lake. There are no natural lakes in the Black Hills. The park has four man-made ones to provide outdoor recreation for tourists.... and there were indeed tourists here... LOTS of them. We pulled into the parking lot filled with literally hundreds of people and kids, loud music blasting from all directions, and people yelling at each other to move over on the road because their giant vehicles couldn't fit.

Fortunately this was all only clustered at the entrance of the lake. After walking just 5 minutes, we entered much more peaceful scenery. We wrapped around the lake, entering the forest behind it. We came across the back of the dam that created the large body of water. Heading back up the trail, we rejoined the lake and could walk across the top of the dam, looking down on where we just were. We returned to the car along the far side of the lake. There were numerous fishermen taking advantage of numerous fish.

Enjoying the lake, away from the crowds

The path led through the forest behind the lake.

It's always the little things that get ya!

A Red Squirrel bounces up to get a better look at us...

... but he quickly determines we aren't going to feed him so he moves on.

A rather banged up Swallowtail butterfly doesn't need us for a nice lunch.

How many times does this kind of stuff have to go terribly wrong before people realize it isn't the answer?

The backside of the dam

Back up at the lake, the top of the dam...

... and looking down at where we just were.

The lake was filled with fish of all sized.

A rather large "ex" fish, hopefully not the result of a bad catch&release job

We hit some heavy road construction going back, but eventually the long line of cars dissipated and we arrived back at our campsite. After a dinner consisting of canned food and peanut butter, we were planning on walking around another lake nearby. But the campsite attendants, an older couple, Earl and Annabeth from Iowa, drove up and we ended up talking with them for a while. It seems like a nice way to enjoy being in the parks for an extended period of time.