When Brian visited Death Valley National Park 20+ years ago on his motorcycle, he remembered driving through it as quickly as possible to beat the heat. Happily our late March visit via car allowed us a more leisurely pace, although the 98 degree highs did have us wrapping up our hikes by mid-day. I underestimated …
I feel incredibly lucky to live an hour from Badlands National Park, which gives us the opportunity to quickly take advantage of breaks in the weather to explore this beautiful area. Such was the case last week when our January temperatures rose into the upper 50 F / 10 C for a few days. Although …
Continue reading South Dakota Hikes: Badlands Saddle Pass Loop
Our 2025 was filled with new adventures and lots of travel to spend time with loved ones, both domestic and abroad. We started the year with road trips around the Mountain West to visit friends and family in Colorado and Utah and hike in new-to-us national parks in Utah and Nevada, including Capitol Reef, Bryce …
As we continue to explore things to do around our new home in the Black Hills of South Dakota, it's clear we have a lot to learn about caving! We took a guided tour within Wind Cave National Park a couple years ago that introduced us to the expansive cave networks under the hills and …
Despite a late start on what ended up being a rainy morning, we managed to get out of the house and over to the Black Hills to check out a hiking area we've been eyeing since we moved to the area called Buzzard's Roost. The multiple trails in this area can be connected into various …
It's been a few years since Brian and I visited Devils Tower National Monument. On previous trips we primarily spent our time at the visitor center so this visit we wanted to focus our time on hiking. While many people opt for the short and relatively accessible Tower Trail that winds around the base of …
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 …
Continue reading South Dakota Hikes: Silver Creek-Flume Loop
Finding direction and purpose on the road, in the outdoors, and on the page
Finding direction and purpose on the road, in the outdoors, and on the page
Finding direction and purpose on the road, in the outdoors, and on the page
Heather's Compass 