Bear Butte State Park-June 15, 2012

Today we decided to go back to Bear Butte State Park and drive through it. It is so pretty in that area. We drove to the education center which was manned by a Native American. We looked at all of the displays many of which were spiritual. Jerry asked if we could drive down a certain road and the man said no, it was off limits. It's a good thing he asked or we would have driven on it. However, it was acceptable for us to hike up the mountain. Hike? Us? Well, we did. We only made it about 1/3 of a way up the mountain, stopped and took in the view and then slowly decended down a rocky trail. It was actually easier going up than down. The view was indescribable. I'll attach a picture but it will not do the scene justice.

Bear Butte Lake and the northern Black Hills

Bear Butte is actually a Native American spiritual area. They have ceremonies there though none were taking place while we were there. Instructions said not to disturb the prayer ceremony and not to take pictures of it. There are countless remains of the prayer ceremonies left in the trees. We do not know what it means except they show the colors of various tribes, but they are fascinating to look at and wonder about.

There are some fascinating knots holding these pieces of fabric together

As we were leaving we saw some young Buffalo babies (calves?) and they made such a cute picture I had to stop. The babies are such a light brown compared to the almost black mothers. I hope they show up in the picture. This part of the country has such fabulous green pastureland there just has to be buffalo grazing to complete the perfect scenery.

You have to have really good eyes to see the babies, so trust me, they are there

I think I need to start thinking about a better camera, so you can see what I see! The wind has kicked up again, more so than it was earlier. We like the lack of humidity, but my hair needs extra attention because of the dryness. That's not a complaint, just a statement. We are having too much fun to complain.