Black Hills Trails – Little Devil’s Tower
After last week’s hike, our second oldest, Seth, complained that it wasn’t a hard or long enough hike to suit him. So, with some collaborating with my sister-in-law, we planned another hike in the hills – this one with a strenuous difficulty level.
We headed to Sylvan Lake to tackle Black Hills Trails – Little Devil’s 
Tower. This time the kids and I (Tristan had to do open houses) had guests along – our oldest and his 3 roommates, my father-in-law, my sister-in-law and a girlfriend. Early on we decided to split into groups, the fast and the slow. In other words the girls and the guys – of course, if us girls hadn’t been so intent on carrying on a conversation during our hike, we may have kept up with the guys. (It also mightva helped if I hadn’t started a 5 day cleanse that day and my body wasn’t in detox mode – but that’s another story.)
The trail was gravel and well maintained, but was up hill the entire way. Great scenery – especially the chipmunks scurrying along the trees, which our daughter really enjoyed. There were a surprising number of hikers out on the trail as well.
The girls stopped for a breather at what we estimate was a little over half way only to get a call (and pictures) from Seth. He had pulled well ahead of the fast group and was sitting on top of Little Devil’s Tower. (Again, I admit we were concentrating on girl talk more than hiking.) He reported that he had an awesome view of the Cathedral Spires, Harney Peak and the Black Hills. Seth decided he was gonna wait for the rest of the guys to catch up and then they would head back down.
Us girls decided we should just turn around now. And it’s a good thing we did, because apparently hiking the 1.25 mile trail up wasn’t enough for most of the guys, they choose to run the whole way down. And beat us back to the Sylvan Lake parking lot. The whole hike took us about 2 hours.
We celebrated our success with ice cream at the Sylvan Lake store – or at least those not on a cleanse did. I had vegetables instead.
We are enjoying exploring new trails and are already planning next week’s hike (with Tristan this time)!
Check out the homes in the Black Hills near beautiful Custer, SD!