Spearfish City Campground (SD)

Bronze statue in Spearfish depicting an important moment in this community: passing along fishing skills from one generation to the next.

Not in a hurry to leave the unique beauty of the surrounding countryside, we chose the more "Scenic" departure from The Badlands.  About 20-miles west of Interior lies the (mostly) ghost-town of Scenic.  The town has a long history that you're free to Google on your own, but the present-day town houses a handful of residents and the remnants of wilder days-gone-by.  One of the most unusual and interesting features is the local bar that houses the adjacent jail.  In more unbridled times both of these establishments served the same customers on a nightly basis.

Main Street in Scenic; The Bar and the Outside Jail

Beyond Scenic lies the Buffalo Gap National Grassland.  Enormously expansive tracts of land that serve as food plots for domestic and wild ungulates.  At this geographical juncture is where you can see The Black Hills ahead, and The Badlands behind.  An incredible dichotomous transition between two very different ecological habitats.

After jumping on the Interstate at Rapid City, we headed northwest--passing the infamous motorcycle Mecca of Sturgis--and arrived at Spearfish.  While staying at Bob's Resort in Gettysburg, a nice elderly lady told us she was a resident of Spearfish and told us about the Spearfish city campground.  Nestled beside stocked trout streams, this full hook-up campground came with her highest recommendation.  Being both respectful to our elders--and trustful of little old ladies--we booked a site for several days.  Upon our arrival, we understood why she recommended the campground...as it was the nicest "fishing camp" we'd ever seen...and Granny was obviously an avid angler as well!

The Spearfish City Campground sits adjacent to a large multi-use park and fish hatchery.  The sites were the tightest and smallest we had utilized to date.  We even had to consider retracting our patio awning while our new neighbors backed into their site.  Even then, our awning cast a shadow on their slide-out.  The park was mostly packed with people who were either fishing, or who were just using the park for an overnight stay.  Even with the cramped spacing, the park was nice and well-maintained.  Ice cold  trout streams flowed on both sides of the park, and several bath/shower facilities (with cypher-locks) were of adequate size/quantity/cleanliness.

The Hayes Family

We chose this spot to reunite with our good friends from Okinawa--The Hayes'.  Corey was a Bioenvironmental Engineering Tech before accepting a commission and being reassigned to nearby Eielson AFB in Rapid City.  He and I worked on many projects across the Pacific, and had some memorable adventures in Cambodia.  His wife Erin is a fellow native Virginian, and would occasionally ride out Typhoons at our place while Corey and I were goofing-off in far-off jungles.  Her daughter Madeline, and Our Boys bonded well, and they may have made a secret pact that we're unaware of.  Since our respective departures from Okinawa, they have added another lady to the family--Jacqueline--and have immersed her in the love of the great outdoors.

The Hayes' "tent-camped" nearby, and we all assembled at Glory for grub and story-telling.  Maddie and The Boys took turns at disrupting nearby trout fishermen, but it was obvious that she and The Boys were having much more fun than they were.  Adjacent to the campground is a trout fish hatchery that is open to the public.  In addition to the sizing ponds, there are larger ponds that house huge trout.  These scaled "Almondened" delights are thick as thieves and await the next offering of approved fish food from passerby's.  The underwater viewing area is similar to those found in traditional aquariums, but Buddy (being an avid angler) became fixated on all the finned fillets.

Buddy getting the fisheye view of enormous hatchery trout

Adjacent to the hatchery exhibit lies static displays of various hatchery artifacts, including the (locally) infamous "fish train."  As part of a large project to introduce game fish into the waterways in this region, fish were transported by rail to distant locations  for introduction into their waters.  This government-operated program helped provide a sustainment of aquatic foods for those inhabiting more rural areas.

The Fish Car Era: When fish traveled by rail to their spawning grounds

With limited hiking opportunities at the city campground, Erin found a nearby hiking trail that went led to "The Devil's Bathtub."  The eight of use set out from the trailhead and proceeded to navigate numerous river-crossings.  Corey had Jacqueline strapped to his back in a hiking/backpack/child-seat contraption.  Young Jacqueline seemed to enjoy the trekking through dense growth and fast-flowing streams, but Corey was working as hard as he did while ascending Cambodian waterfalls.  We traversed most of the trail, but Kristy and I were in a time-crunch to run several errands in Rapid City on a business-shortened Sunday.   

Buddy judges various river-crossing techniques during the Hayes-Walker River Trekking Competition

We ran our errands and dropped by their house to say goodbye to the three ladies who were leaving for a Virginia vacation early the next morning.  We returned to camp, did some pre-travel preparations, and hit the hay.  We were about to wade into unfamiliar waters--"dry camping."

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