south dakota 2

sunday we left the motel and drove under sunny skies through beautiful, beautiful spearfish canyon -- we couldn't have planned the trip any better because the scenery was gorgeous the whole time we were in the hills. we took the road down through teeny tiny rocheford and then past mystic. the mickelson trail is a fabulous thing for the hills to have and there were people riding their bicycles on it between rocheford and mystic. it even incorporates a train trestle -- wish the trail had been in place when we were spending all our vacations there, way back when.

we discovered to our dismay that the alpine inn in hill city is closed on sundays, so we had the lunch buffet, which actually turned out to be very good, at a little cafe in town. from there we headed on down to custer and proceeded to spend the next three days from our base at the rock creek inn. the room we had (one of the so-called duplexes) was HUGE and worked out just perfectly. they had some darling little cabins which would have been fun, but were a little pricey and not quite as spacious. we had supper at the elk canyon cafe and settled in for the evening. yes, there were a few pictures, but they didn't turn out real great so ... none again.