![]() ![]() Maybe the thin air plays tricks with the mind. Surely his resting place is the highest grave east of the Rocky Mountains.Ĭertain questions come to mind when you’re standing at the top. Valentine McGillycuddy's ashes are interred near the top of Black Elk Peak. After he died in 1939, his widow received approval to bury his ashes atop the mountain. Later he became an Indian Agent on the Pine Ridge, mayor of Rapid City and dean of the School of Mines. ![]() McGillycuddy climbed Black Elk Peak to record its height, and supposedly used a pine log as a ladder to reach the very last granite ledge. Just before you ascend the fire tower, look for the small plate with the inscription “Valentine McGillycuddy.” It’s the name of a man who arrived in the Black Hills in 1875 as a surveyor. But it’s worth the wind, even on a cold day in winter, because most of us will never see so much land with our feet on the ground. While the wind whispers down below, it roars on the summit, especially as you climb those last steps to the observatory tower. “Especially there at the top, the steps can become windswept and they are particularly icy.” “We have such huge swings in temperature and weather that we tend to get a freeze-thaw effect on the steps, both at the top and all along the trail,” he says. Pickford says accidents do happen on the mountain, and he agrees that the final steps can be tricky. You don’t want to fall off now, not while 7,242 feet in the air. The Forest Service created smooth stone steps and a short metal stairway just below a legendary old lookout tower that was built on the summit by Civilian Conservation Corps workers in 1939. ![]() That’s ironic because it is the most civilized. But the last stretch is the most treacherous. If only making a U-turn was as easy on Omaha Avenue in downtown Rapid City.Īfter two hours on the trail, I could see the summit. I was on Trail Nine and missed a left turn on the way down within 100 yards I saw a “3” etched in a tree, signifying Trail Three so I reversed course. If you’ve been known to take a wrong turn in Rapid City or Sioux Falls, then you can certainly lose your way on Black Elk Peak. Pay some attention to the signage as you go. The lack of wildlife, along with the fact that there’ll be no motorcycles or tour buses echoing down below, adds to the solitude that winter hikers like. “You might see rabbits and squirrels on a winter day,” Pickford says, “but you’re less likely to see birds and the bigger animals than in the summer.” Sightings are rare, but believable to our friends back down the mountain.ĭeer, elk, turkey and mountain goats are common in the other seasons, but they winter in the meadows and thick pines at the foot of the mountain. Wolves haven’t been seen on Black Elk Peak in modern times (Mount Rushmore A.D.), but a young male was hit by a car near Sturgis two years ago and another was caught in a trap in Harding County.ĭave Pickford, a ranger with the Black Hills National Forest’s Hell Canyon District, says lions have been spotted. Such encounters are almost unheard of, especially in winter. But leave your pencil and paper at home you’ll understand when you step on the trail.įew hardy souls climb Black Elk Peak in winter, but our writer met college students Caleb Chapman (left) and Chase Merfeld near the summit.Ī stick might also give you a weapon in the very slim likelihood that you meet a mountain lion or wolf. Walking uphill doesn’t seem as tricky as walking downhill, and there’s a mathematical explanation it has something to do with the nonlinear partial differential of miles-per-hour divided by the angle squared. A stick is like an extension of your arm it might help you catch your balance or slow your fall. A mountain goat would not think of traversing the heights of a snow-slippery mountain path on just two legs, and neither should you. Take a walking stick, or pick one up along the trail. On blustery days, the wind whooshes and roars past the treetops, but down below you’re so protected by trees and canyon walls that you hardly feel a breeze. You can hear the winter wind whispering in the pines, even on a still day. More often, the trail led to granite-strewn overlooks so bright that I needed sunglasses to look out on the white and blue landscape. At times it was dark in the deep canyons of the 7,242-foot mountain. I started up the trail at high noon on a sunny Sunday. You can’t see Spain from the top, but you can easily find Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska. Want to play like a mountain goat for a winter afternoon? Then hike to the summit of Black Peak after a soft snowfall, picking your way up the rocky, tree-strewn 3-mile trail that leads to the tallest point east of the Rockies and west of the Pyrenees in Europe. Climbers who reach the summit of Black Elk Peak can gaze upon four states: South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska. ![]()
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