Yellow River Camping

Rick and I spent a long weekend camping at Yellow River State Forest.

Our campsite! Rocinante is laying out to dry and the blue tarp tied to the tree is our makeshift shower curtain/ clothesline. We hang our camp shower beneath the tarp so we can wash up properly without offending any neighbors.

Bald Eagle on the Yellow River

Great Swallowtail Butterfly on a bull thistle

Great Swallowtail Butterflies

Rick and a Rainbow Trout caught in Big Paint Creek

Grosbeak

Erin and a teeny tiny Crawdad she caught by hand in the Yellow River

Rough Winged Swallow

Painted Turtle

A little Bass Rick caught in the mouth of the Yellow River

Viceroy Butterfly - the viceroy is a non-poisonous Monarch mimic, but the black band across the lower wing gives it away. The Monarch doesn't have one.

Lake Macbride

Rick and I took Rocinante out for a paddle around Lake Macbride

Yellow Warbler

Grasshopper Sparrow

Rose Breasted Grosbeak - female

Northern Waterthrush

Our homemade Jugs for Jug-Fishin'

Jug Fishing at Palo Reservoir

Rick and I took Rocinante out for a little Jug Fishing at the Palo Reservoir aka: Pleasant Creek

Painted Turtle

Muskrat - if you look closely, you can see Rocinante's reflection in his eye. We were so close we could hear him chewing that blade of grass!

Green Heron

Ducks on dead trees

Painted Turtles

Erin and a Channel Cat - caught on a jug and stinkbait

Kingbird

Ricky and a little Channel Cat - this one talked a lot!

Jug Fishing at Lake Macbride

Rick finds a "honey hole" in a cove at Lake Macbride, a storm drove us in early the first day, but we went back the day after to catch some more catfish!

Fishing Raccoons

This little guy chewed on this artificial lure for a couple minutes before deciding it wasn't food and discarding it.

This mama raccoon teaches her little ones how to feel around under submerged rocks for food.

Backbone Camping

Rick, Matt, Alex and I headed up to backbone for a weekend of camping and fishing!

3 fearless explorers head up the rocky stairs to "the cave"

3 fearless explorers at the mouth of "the cave" (the flashlightless camera girl is IN the cave)

Alex crawls through "the cave" after abandoning further exploration in favor of being able to stand up again

Alex and Rick beside a creek in Backbone State Park 

Matt fishing in a creek at Backbone State Park

South Dakota Road Trip

For the 4th of July weekend, Rick and I took a week long road trip to South Dakota. 

We spent the first night of our trip visiting Amy in Vermillion before continuing west the next morning. We arrived at the Badlands National Park around mid-morning on July 4th. The temperature was around 105F. We bought and packed 24 bottles of water and headed out into the backcountry to find Deer Haven, our campsite for the night.

This Barn Swallow landed on this sign at the trailhead to make sure we were aware of what we were heading into.

The high on July 4th in the Badlands was 106 degrees F. There's no shade, no water, and it's hard walking through washouts and tall prairie grass so we wanted a picture before we turned into dripping horrible messes. 

Rick leads the way into the backcountry of the badlands - there's no marked trail, he navigated via landmark and topographical map.

Deer Haven! We camped just above the tree line. NOT an easy climb!

Ricky surveys the Badlands below us

Our tent site in Deer Haven

Ricky on the morning of July 5. We survived our night in the Badlands! The temperature plummeted overnight and the rest of the week was beautiful and in the mid-70s.

Big Horn Sheep!

Lark Bunting

After leaving the Badlands we drove down through Custer State park and into Wind Caves National Park. We spent the night of the 5th in Hot Springs at a little hotel, but camped the rest of the week. We also took a drive up Needles Highway and spent a night in the bizarre town of Deadwood SD - burial place of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. But Deadwood and all it's casino/ice cream parlors wasn't really our style, so we headed back to Wind Cave for the last couple days.

This enormous Lubber Grasshopper was on the plains along the Centennial trail in Wind Caves National Park. The Centennial trail was meant to have markers, but the buffalo pushed them all over, so we just wandered around until a freak storm sent us scurrying 2 1/2 miles back to the car.

baby Pronghorn in Wind Caves National Park

Western Tanager - male

Juvenile Mountain Bluebird

adult Mountain Bluebird

baby Rabbit

Mountain Goats on the Needles Highway

Hoary Marmot on the Needles highway

Rick watches fish swim in a beautiful stream in the Black Elk Wilderness

A tiny fox squirrel in the Black Elk Wilderness

 Black Headed Grosbeak - Black Elk Wilderness 

Ricky took this awesome picture of a Buffalo out the car window!

Barn Swallow at our camp site in Wind Caves National Park

BURROWING OWLS!!!

female Red-Wing Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

Lark Sparrow

Ring-necked Pheasant

 On our last day we stopped at the Wounded Knee Massacre site. Very spooky.

This trip was such a blast! We didn't want to go home.