Spending the night at Spearfish Canyon Lodge was a big relief after the less-than-spectacular experience we had with Under Canvas Mount Rushmore.
We slept well in the Muir Suite. For us, this was the ideal place (quiet, comfortable, and right next to trails and scenery).
I did wake up fairly early (5:30 AM) because I wanted to take in a morning run to Roughlock Falls. The trailhead is just past the lodge building on the south-east side.
Roughlock Falls
I decided to run the one-mile trail to the falls and back. It was a very nice experience, with woodlands surrounding the trail and the towering walls of Spearfish Canyon rising above. It kind of reminded me of Zion, albeit more wooded and with cooler summer temperatures.
Roughlock Falls was my favorite of the three we saw in Spearfish Canyon (the others being Bridalveil Falls and Spearfish Canyon Falls).
The falls can be viewed from three separate platforms at different elevations. You will want to stop at all three to fully appreciate the falls.
Roughlock Falls Lower Viewpoint
Roughlock Falls Upper Viewpoint
The falls create an interesting microclimate of their own, owing to the spray the falls deposit in the canyon. The falls roll over moss-covered rocks and between thick groves of trees and flowering bushes. The falls look like something you’d imagine in the Pacific Northwest.
I started jogging back and noticed I wasn’t alone on the trail. My trail companion, however, was a bit shy and decided to run off trail and into the foliage rather than stop and talk.
Black Bear in Spearfish Canyon
A bear encounter is always a a good way to close out a roadtrip.
After my morning fun, I returned to the room and showered while Shelley and Evan enjoyed a few more minutes of rest. You can decide who had a better start to the morning between the three of us.
An hour later we all got packed up and started home.
We wanted coffee though, and the best way to get something more than regular black was to first drive back north to Spearfish.
Spearfish
We decided to try a small coffee stand near the highway called KLYM Coffee and Donuts. The coffee was good enough but the donuts were tiny.
With our coffee needs covered we headed west into Wyoming for the drive home.
Wyoming
The drive south through Sundance, Four Corners, and Newcastle on highways 585 and 85 was pretty scenic and enjoyable.
Once past Newcastle, Wyoming changes from mountains and forests to dry, windswept stretches of rangeland.
I often hear people speak negatively about driving through Wyoming, but for me, it’s the stark difference between northern and southern Wyoming that stands out.
Yes, I’m not a huge fan of the endless, dry, and windy stretches of southern Wyoming. But northern Wyoming just looks and feels different.
From the northeast corner where the Black Hills give way to Devils Tower, to the central Bighorn Mountains and Bighorn Canyon, and finally the Beartooth Mountains and the national parks of Yellowstone and Grand Teton in the northwest, northern Wyoming represents some of the best scenery in the country. To drive east to west across northern Wyoming is a true adventure.
In all areas of Wyoming the towns are very small and dining options are extremely limited. We were going to stop in Lusk for lunch, but didn’t find anywhere that we were interested in going.
We continued on another sixty miles to Torrington and had a late lunch at Arby’s.
After lunch, we continued south and re-entered Colorado. The roads were much busier and the weather much hotter.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this was a fun trip in a year where we’ve had to dial back on travel (for a number of reasons).
It was great to get back to the Black Hills and I’m pretty sure we’ll be back again within a few years. The Black Hills are full of fun and interesting sites, and we got the chance to discover a few more on this journey.
I would like to go even further next time and visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. I’ve only once been in North Dakota (Grand Forks in 1998), and 99% of the state is unexplored. And the majority of South Dakota remains to be explored as well.
The next morning Shelley and Evan elected to sleep in a bit longer before we checked out of our cabin in Canyon Village. I wanted to return to Norris Geyser Basin to continue on with the Back Basin portion of the thermal area.
I got into my truck and after it warmed up from the 35 F degree temperatures overnight (Canyon Village is at about 7900 feet in elevation), I saw that one of my tires had low tire pressure. I got out and saw no obvious damage to the tire, so I drove over to the service station at Canyon Village and refilled it to full PSI.
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
I didn’t wan to go far so I drove over to the nearby North Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and hopped out to take some photos closer to sunrise.
The Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellwstone
After returning to my truck I found the tire was still fully inflated. I decided to travel a bit farther and give it a couple hours more to see how the tire held up and continued on toward Norris.
Feeling more confident about the tire, I thought to myself about how much I was enjoying the trip thus far and how beautiful the park was in June. The weather had been perfect. I had worried that in June we would encounter possibly frigid temperatures, but instead it was in the high 70s every day.
Norris Geyser Basin
I returned to Norris Geyser Basin, and since it was only 6:30 AM I was able to park right at the entrance to the basin. I hopped out of my truck with my camera and GoPro and resumed where I left off from the prior evening, this time walking the Back Basin Loop.
I started with Steamboat Geyser. It is the tallest in the park and one of the tallest in the world when it erupts. Which is a rare occurrence. But when it does it is so powerful it sounds like a steamboat.
I enjoyed my walk through the Back Basin in teh morning with few people around. The temperatures were still relatively cool at the early hour of the day and this did mean that many of the hot springs were more obscurred by the hot steam than they would be later in the day.
When I was at Steamboat Geyser a seismologist was there and was replacing the battery on a seismograph near the geyser. After the recent steam explosions at Biscuit Basin, the park needs to be extra vigilant about identifying potential changes in subsurface activity.
Canyon Village
After enjoying my morning at Norris Geyser Basin I drove back to Canyon Village to meet up with Shelley and Evan and to check out of the cabin. That day we would move to Grant Village for a one night stay in the lodge (a replacement for the camping we were earlier going to do in Grant Campground).
I stopped at the Washburn Lodge to go to the lodge snack shop to see if they sold coffee. They do, they said, bt only drip coffee.
Rather than waste money on crappy coffee, I returned to the cabin to find Shelley and Evan not there. Just then they called me. They were walking to the village area where there is a larger coffee shop that sold more varieties of coffee. I parked and walked to meet them as they made their way to the village. We were all feeling good and enjoying ourselves and we were desperate for some good morning coffee.
We did get some huckleberry lattes, after a wait for the staff to replenish their supply of milk. Sigh. Oh well. Time to pack up the truck and drive south.
Hayden Valley and Lake Yellowstone
We entered Hayden Valley again, and as usual it didn’t disappoint. This time we watched a coyote hunting near a herd of bison.
Though the coyote was fairly distant, it was fun to watch it stalk through the grass as it moved ever closer to the herd.
After reaching Lake Junction, we proceeded along the lake shore and found this elk cow and calf walking along the shoreline.
The elk cow was collared as you can see in the photos. A crowd of people were following along the roadway above and we were concerned that they were making it difficult for the elk to lead her calf out of the water. Lake Yellowstone is 40F and certainly the calf couldn’t stay too long in the water. We left and hopefully the elk were able to reach a dry and safe exit from the elk.
Before heading to Grant Village we had our second hike of the trip planned for the day. We crossed the Continental Divide twice at close to 9000 feet in elevation, then pulled into the parking area for Lonestar Geyser.
The Lonestar Geyser Trail
Every trip has its ridiculous moments, and I ended up turning what what supposed to be an easy-going family hike into a personal 10K at almost 9000 feet.
The last time we were in Yellowstone in 2019, we decided to hike this trail. We got a mile into the trail and my then six-year-old Evan had to go to the bathroom. Number two. Really bad. So we quickly returned to the trailhead to get him to the bathroom and that pretty much ended the hike.
This time, it seemed an ideal family hike again. And if we were lucky we’d see it erupt.
At the parking area we got out the bug spray, backpacks, water, cameras, and made a stop at the bathroom to not allow the same issue to hijack our hike. Ready to go, we started off down the trail (which is really a back road for most of the distance).
We all started out together and were having a fun time as you can see in this clip.
Not long after this bridge crossing I realized, however, that I didn’t have my cell phone. I was very concerned that I may have set it on the truck bed cover while we were getting our gear together.
Rather than wait until we returned, or worse turn back without completing the hike, I told Shelley and Evan I would run back to the truck, get my phone, and run back to them. I told them to keep going and I’d catch up.
We were about a mile into the hike so it was two miles to run back and forth from that spot. I got to the truck, found my phone safely in the console, and jogged back down the trail.
As I got past the point where we separated I expected to find them but could not. They had all my heavy gear so I assumed they were not moving as fast, but after about 3/4 of a mile run further down the trail I could not find them.
I looked at my phone. There was no cell reception but it appeared that the Life360 app might be working and could show me where they were. It appeared to show them back the way I had come.
Not sure why they would be behind me but I started running back the way I had come. Until it led me all the way to the truck. They were not there. Thankfully. Stupid app though.
I applied sunscreen at the truck since they had the only other bottle in my backpack and ran back down the trail again. At around 1.5 miles, I asked a couple if they’d seen a mom and son on the trail. They said they had. At the geyser.
As my wife’s GoPro footage shows…
I ran onward until I met them on the trail back. They asked what took so long. They had waited for me at the geyser…
I told them I had run 2 + 3.5 + 1.75 miles plus the initial hike of a mile, so about a 10K at 9000 feet in hiking boots. I was tired. But no way was I turning around now. I’m going to the geyser.
Anyway they continued back while I finished the hike at got my photos and video footage of the rest of the trail and at the geyser.
It almost looks like I hiked alone but that was never the intention. After spending some time at the geyser I hiked back and apparently they missed the buffalo just off the trail.
Once back to the car we were all in agreement that ice cream was in order after we had lunch at Grant Village.
On the way out of the parking lot we got the best black bear photos yet.
How often do you see bears in the wild four days in a row?
Grant Village
Once we arrived in Grant Village we found out the only place we could eat was the General Store. Fortunately the woman that scooped the ice cream did not hold back. We got well-deserved amounts of huckleberry ice cream (and a couple other flavors).
After eating we checked into our room. I made a video of the room for fellow travelers. It’s a two queen lodge room.
We got some needed rest for a couple hours in the room before walking over the the Grant Village Restaurant at our reservation time. We assumed the restaurant was at least as nice as the one in Mammoth Hot Springs, but despite the lake views it was a bit of a disappointment.
The restaurant space was very crowded even at 8:30 PM with reservations. The menu was also a bit silly, in our opinion. I ordered a hamburger because it was the most filling and ‘normal’ thing on the menu. Why on earth was ‘jerk tofu’ a menu item? In a rustic lodge in a national park where people come in from a day of outdoor recreation.
Again, Xanterra needs to knock off the woke stuff and just make the visitor experience high-quality. We want BBQ Mac `n Cheese and other delicious food and drinks, not menu items you’d expect to find in San Francisco. We shouldn’t have to ask for the beer menu. You understand, right?
Oh well, it was another fun, adventure-filled day with another one planned for tomorrow.
