8:52 AM, 43ºF, Devil’s Bathtub (Cleopatra) trailhead in Spearfish Canyon – Sort of a late start, especially for this time of year when the days are so short, but Lupe ought to have plenty of time to get to the Devil’s Bathtub, a popular Black Hills destination accessible from Spearfish Canyon. Last year she had been here and made it up Squaw Creek far enough to get to some beautiful pools past scenic cliffs, but it hadn’t seemed quite right. Sure enough, a little research later on had proven that the American Dingo hadn’t gone far enough to actually reach the Devil’s Bathtub. Now Loop was back to correct that mistake.
A 0.25 mile downstream jaunt along Spearfish Creek got Loopster to Cleopatra Place, a short road with a bridge over to some private homes and cabins on the E side of the river. Just past the bridge, the start of the Devil’s Bathtub trail was on the R. Certain of success this time around, Loop and SPHP started up Squaw Creek.
In the narrow side canyon that Squaw Creek flows through on its way to join up with Spearfish Creek, the trail was soon criss-crossing Squaw Creek multiple times. Expected, but what SPHP hadn’t anticipated was that there was still some snow and ice way down here along the shaded creek. The frozen stuff had melted days ago almost everywhere else.
The first couple of crossings weren’t bad, but as Lupe continued up the valley, she kept coming to more snow and ice. Not enough to support her weight, but enough to make everything slippery. Even where it had all melted, the rocks were damp and slick. Rock hopping was risky, and SPHP really didn’t want to wade through it all getting freezing wet paws.
A spur trail NE of the stream led steeply up to higher ground. Hoping the spur might make it possible to skip some of the stream crossings, SPHP encouraged Loop to try it. Worked, but not a great solution. The short climb was tricky due to half-frozen mud. Once the trail leveled out, Lupe then had to cross a skinny, damp section on a treacherously steep slope, only to promptly get forced all the way back down to creek level again.
The next stream ford was easier, but the one after it was much worse. After successfully negotiating it only to immediately discover another one lying in wait that wasn’t any better, SPHP had had it.
Hang on, Looper!
What’cha thinking, SPHP?
I’m thinking this isn’t going to work. We already know from your trek up here last year that we still have a bunch of stream crossings to go. Sooner or later, I’m going to wind up falling in the creek, or at least getting my paws soaking wet. Not a thrilling prospect in November, even though you might be fine with it.
So what are you saying? We’re done already? We’ve hardly started!
How about a change of plans? I say let’s skip the Devil’s Bathtub, and come back sometime when either the creek is solidly frozen over, or its just plain hot out. That’s when everyone else comes up here, so they can use the Devil’s Bathtub as a swimming hole.
Fine with me, SPHP, but what do you want to do instead?
Little Crow Peak (5,885 ft.) isn’t far away. Spearfish Peak (5,800 ft.) might even be within range. We haven’t been to either one in more than 4.5 years. Want to do that?
Sure! Which way from here, then?
We’ll have to go back to the start if we can’t climb our way out of here. Let’s give that a shot first. Right on up that slope! Onward! Puppy, ho!
Loopster powered up, while SPHP thrashed around on the steep slope. Managed to get up it, though. Maybe 100 feet above Squaw Creek, Lupe came to an old road covered with pine needles.
We’re in luck, SPHP! This ought to make things easier. Which way now?
Not entirely certain, Loop. Probably L. The topo map doesn’t even show this road. Say, maybe we can get to the Devil’s Bathtub after all, if we just follow it up Squaw Creek valley? Wanna try that?
You’re a truly flexible planner, SPHP. Devil’s Bathtub it is, again! Head R then?
Yup. Do it, Dingo!
Well, shucks. It didn’t work. After going around a corner, chunks of the road were missing, haven fallen into the valley at one time or another. The road became a mostly one track trail traversing some perilously steep slopes. SPHP called another halt.
What now, SPHP?
Beginning to think this route is going to totally play out somewhere up ahead, Loop. Probably just a big waste of time.
So, you want to go back the way we came?
Yes, but stick with this road. Good chance it will tie in with USFS Road No. 186 before too long. No. 186 will get us up to the Little Crow Peak region. Same route that got us up there years ago.
Going NW back past where Lupe had originally reached this old pine needle covered road, it eventually did tie into another more substantial road. SPHP didn’t recognize it as USFS Road No. 186, but maybe it was? Almost had to be according to the map, although nothing looked familiar as the Carolina Dog took it higher.
Before long, Loop came to a single short switchback after which the road headed E up a narrow side canyon, climbing steadily at a pretty good clip. This went on for perhaps 0.75 mile or more. The terrain looked like it was about to level out a bit when Lupe reached a broken down gate in a fence line where the valley broadened out somewhat.
This gate seemed faintly familiar. Immediately beyond it, the road branched. Looper stayed to the L (NE), continuing up the valley. She’d already gained a lot of elevation. For the first time, a distant view was beginning to open up behind her.
The road finally did level off. The Carolina Dog had climbed completely out of Spearfish Canyon and its off-shoots. This area also seemed vaguely familiar. SPHP was fairly certain Loop had been here before. If so, Little Crow Peak was only 0.5 mile off to the WNW. Instead of going back to climb it, though, Lupe continued NE.
Late morning. Sunny and crisp. A thin layer of snow brightened the road ahead. Felt good to be out and on the move, listening to the pines sighing in a light breeze. Looper didn’t get much farther before coming to a landmark that SPHP recognized for sure. At a spot where the road divided, remnants of an ancient battered bus sat quietly rusting away, just as it had been the last time Lupe had been here.
The road continuing NE looked destined to go downhill. Instead of going that way, Lupe turned due E on a rockier road that went uphill. It wasn’t a big climb. The road soon leveled out. A little downhill stretch, and at the top of the next hill the American Dingo reached Carbonate Camp.
Next to nothing left of the old ghost town. A wooden sign nailed to a big Ponderosa pine tree said “Carbonate Camp Cemetery”. Wooden boards marked 5 gravesites. Although leaning, the decaying boards were still standing, but that was all that was still here. 2 of the graves were N of the road, the other 3 were S.
Noon hour. Lupe and SPHP paused to relax for a few minutes by the 3 graves S of the road, and share a chocolate coconut bar. With an eager Dingo in on the deal, the little bar vanished in seconds. Loop followed that up with a Taste of the Wild chaser while SPHP munched an apple.
E of Carbonate Camp, the road forked again, both branches heading downhill. Lupe took the main road as it curled L around to the N, then NW. Hmm. Maybe this route actually went back to the ancient bus? In any case, it wasn’t the right way.
Marching back up to the fork, Loop took a very rocky road NE down a steep hill. Before she reached the bottom of a deep ravine, she came to such a badly eroded section that this road would have been impassable to virtually any vehicle, although it wasn’t a bad hiking trail.
From this first ravine, the road headed due E again, going up and down over several smaller hills. 0.5 mile E of Carbonate Camp, Lupe arrived at a frozen pond tucked away in the shadows of upper Rubicon Gulch.
A number of roads intersected down here in Rubicon Gulch. One going S led over to a gated-off area owned by a mining operation. One went NW down Rubicon Gulch, and another continued straight E up a steep slope.
Without hesitation, the Carolina Dog took yet another road that climbed NE, then N up to the top of the next ridge. The terrain leveled out as Lupe reached a big overhead power line. After going under the power line, she passed a cute little cabin on the R (E).
Spearfish Peak (5,800 ft.) was still 2 miles N of here. A little more than that the way the road went. After 1:30 PM. SPHP was now regretting the ridiculous decision not to climb Little Crow Peak first. With sunset only a bit after 4:00 PM, if Loopster went on to Spearfish Peak it was probably going to be dark by the time she could get back to Little Crow.
Should have been evident all along! Nothing to do about it now, though, except pick up the pace. Might still work out. Lupe continued N past some more private property. Soon she was passing under the power line again, with a glimpse of Spearfish Peak in the distance.
From the power line, the road swung W a little way going up over a small hill in the process, then down again before turning N once more to climb a larger hill. Meanwhile, the sky had clouded up, turning a sad gray. The air felt colder. Except for the dark green of the pines, and the snow white bark of leafless, shivering aspens, everything along the road was brown, tan, or beige, the somber colors of death.
One of those afternoons with a late fall feel, as if the icy hand of winter was near, plotting to steal in without warning and seize the entire world in its eternal frozen grip. An afternoon for brooding and dark thoughts.
Yet Lupe was doing fine, trotting happily along, sometimes venturing into the brush for a quick sniff before returning to the road. She was making good progress. Crow Peak (5,787 ft.), the big one, not the little one, came into sight off to the NW. As Loop drew near Spearfish Peak, Bear Butte (4,422 ft.) could be seen looking small and insignificant out on the plains beyond the rest of the Black Hills. It was still bathed in sunlight. Clearly, winter was in no position to back up its idle threats. At least, not yet.
The road returned to the power line before getting to Spearfish Peak. USFS Road No. 220 soon veered off to the R (NE) heading downhill. Lupe stuck with the power line, and quickly came to another fork. This time she took the L (NW) branch, a short road that ended near the trees. An ATV trail continued up Spearfish Peak’s SE ridge, but soon gave out as well, reduced to a single track trail that wound the rest of the way up to the summit.
Aspens, pines and deadfall! The top of Spearfish Peak was sort of a mess, and didn’t provide much in the way of views. The true summit was a big gray rock with a brass survey benchmark fastened to it a foot or two below the high point. Just W of this rock sat a large gray box sporting a solar panel and a small, thin antenna.
Despite the fairly dense forest, a few narrowly restricted distant views existed. Terry Peak (7,064 ft.) and Custer Peak (6,804 ft.) could both be seen off to the S, but not from any point where Lupe could get into the picture. A glimpse of Little Crow Peak (5,885 ft.) and part of Spearfish Canyon was available from a spot a little W of the true summit.
There was a need for speed, if Lupe still hoped to climb Little Crow Peak today. Even so, SPHP allowed her to linger up on Spearfish Peak for nearly half an hour. No sense in coming all this way, and not getting to savor the moment, at least to some degree. The last chocolate coconut bar vanished along with the last apple. The Taste of the Wild supply took a major hit, too.
Minutes came and went at breakneck speed. Suddenly Lupe was poised again atop the true summit of Spearfish Peak (5,800 ft.). A last photo, and Onward! Puppy, ho!
On the way back by the same route, Bear Butte was still in sunshine as Lupe started the trek S from Spearfish Peak. That didn’t stop winter from taking a shot. Overhead, the sky darkened. Several times snow granules massed for the attack, but they were tiny and didn’t have the numbers to accomplish anything. Plunging to earth like minuscule white meteors, they melted and were gone.
3:57 PM, 0.6 mile ESE of Little Crow Peak – Still light out, but the sun was close to the horizon when Lupe reached a grassy road that veered off to the R (NW) 250 yards after passing the ancient bus. This long forgotten road, which left USFS Road No. 186 before it started back down into Spearfish Canyon, wound its way WNW toward Little Crow Peak.
Without it, Loopster would never have gotten to the SE slope in time to race up as fast as SPHP could struggle through the thick underbrush of a mixed pine and aspen forest.
The climb wasn’t a big one, maybe 200 feet of elevation gain, but when Lupe reached the first rocks at what had appeared to be the top, the view was confusing. 300 feet off to the N or NE was a clearly higher rock formation. It seemed like Lupe had come up the S or even the SW slope, when SPHP had been pretty sure she’d been climbing from the SE.
No time to worry about an explanation for that now. Light was fading, and the view was distressing for another reason. SPHP remembered that Little Crow Peak had been somewhat of a mess due to deadfall when Loop had been here before, but it was really bad now. As fast as possible, which wasn’t fast at all, Lupe and SPHP struggled through the maze toward the apparent summit.
The sun had just vanished when the Carolina Dog got there, the horizon still lit up with a lingering orange glow.
Egads! This wasn’t the true summit either. Another rock formation a good 10 feet higher could now be seen 300 feet farther N. Worse yet, the deadfall between here and there was absolutely horrendous. The light was going fast as Loop and SPHP clambered carefully over or under the obstacle course. No going around anything, that just wasn’t possible.
This had better be the summit! The light was fading so fast that Lupe was going to have to retreat soon. Too many steep slopes that dropped hundreds of feet into oblivion in too many directions to risk not being able to find the way back to the grassy road.
4:36 PM, summit of Little Crow Peak – Yup! This was it! Still light enough to tell that the intrepid American Dingo actually had reached the true summit of Little Crow Peak (5,885 ft.). Lupe was now poised atop the highest rock. The camera was very light sensitive, but it was getting so dark that photos now looked fuzzy.
The true summit of Little Crow Peak, perhaps due to being reached in a frantic rush in the nick of time, seemed like a cool place. Destroyed by pine bark beetles, the forest was completely shattered to the S and W, opening up the views. Elsewhere, the surviving forest was still thick enough, and now dark enough, to hide whatever was out there.
Really was a shame that Lupe hadn’t climbed Little Crow Peak earlier. 5 minutes to enjoy her success, and that was it. Gotta get out of here!
Leaving the summit, Lupe found a short ramp to the S that enabled her to skip a lot of the worst of the deadfall. However, she needed to go E to get back down to the grassy road. Stars were appearing, the last of the light almost gone. The sky was still somewhat light, but the forest and ground were virtually invisible.
The descent became one of confusion and constant second-guessing. The flashlight had to come out. Everywhere the mountain dropped away. SPHP decided Loop was too far S, then too far N. Nerve-wracking for a while, but at last the slope wasn’t so steep. Must be on track. Sure enough, the grassy road appeared ahead.
Still a couple of miles to go, but the rest would be easy. Loopster could follow old USFS Road No. 186 all the way back down to Cleopatra Place at the start of the Devil’s Bathtub trail without having to return to Squaw Creek. Cross the bridge over Spearfish Creek, and she’d be 0.25 mile from the trailhead and the G6.
Success assured, stars glittering in the now clearing night sky, Looper sniffed ahead, sometimes revealed by the weak beam of the flashlight, sometimes cloaked in the black void. (End 7:00 PM, 31ºF)
Links:
Next Black Hills Expedition Prior Black Hills Expedition
Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 171 – Little Crow Peak & Spearfish Peak (5-7-16)
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