The temperature finally dipped below 85 degrees for a day so we headed for the (Black) hills to do some hiking on the Silver Creek Trail and part of the Flume Trail.

It was an interesting stretch of relatively flat trail with some creek crossings and lovely wildflowers in bloom. There were lots of people on the trail but it appeared most stopped to swim in the creek – once we passed the watering hole, we only saw a handful of additional hikers.

The Silver Creek trail has a great turnaround point at Lake Sheridan. We climbed up the embankment for picturesque views of the lake with the mountains in the background.

Instead of the out-and-back option, we made our way to the shoreline so we could catch the Flume Trail back to the parking lot, making a nice loop hike.

During the extra minutes it took us to find the other trail, we lucked into catching a glimpse of a very unique pontoon boat!

The Flume Trail had some local history plaques as well as a couple of tunnels.

We only walked through one of them on the way to our car, but I would definitely explore the other tunnel and more of the Flume Trail on a future hike.

Overall our hike clocked in at 2.68 miles / 4.3 km and 239 feet / 73 meters gain. I love being near the mountains and trees again and look forward to more hiking in the Black Hills!