{"id":367,"date":"2015-03-23T08:30:45","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T14:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=367"},"modified":"2020-09-21T19:55:36","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T01:55:36","slug":"black-hills-sd-expedition-no-123-white-rocks-mt-roosevelt-crow-peak-3-21-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=367","title":{"rendered":"Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 123: White Rocks, Mt. Roosevelt & Crow Peak (3-21-15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lupe was destined to have a bit of a different excursion this beautiful, sunny and unseasonably warm Saturday in March.\u00a0 SPHP had decided she should go do a bit of peakbagging in the northern Black Hills and hit 3 different peaks she’d never climbed before.\u00a0 The 3 peaks were scattered far enough apart so Lupe would have to get a ride in the G6 to get from peak to peak.\u00a0 That alone was unusual enough, since Lupe doesn’t normally return to the G6 until the end of the day.\u00a0 However, all three peaks were also in areas where Lupe would likely see people and other dogs, too.\u00a0 Usually Lupe and SPHP are in remote enough areas so they rarely see anyone else once they leave the G6.<\/p>\n

The first peak Lupe went to was White Rocks<\/a><\/span> (5,250 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 Lupe was pretty surprised to jump out of the G6 at 10:11 AM and find herself at a little park in the town of Deadwood, SD.\u00a0 Lupe\u00a0started off trotting\u00a0past several blocks of houses following Cemetery Road steeply up to the Mt. Moriah Cemetery.\u00a0 There were several tourists around since a number of local celebrities are buried at the Mt. Moriah Cemetery, including “Wild Bill” Hickok, Preacher Smith, Calamity Jane, Seth Bullock and Potato Creek Johnny.<\/p>\n

SPHP checked, but, of course, dogs aren’t allowed in the cemetery.\u00a0 This saved the $1.00 admission fee, but also meant Lupe had to go back down Cemetery Road just a little bit and then turn and climb straight up a long\u00a0steep forested slope to get up to White Rocks.\u00a0 Shortly before reaching the summit, she did reach a dirt road, which she followed to get to the summit area.\u00a0 The summit area consisted of a number of limestone outcroppings.\u00a0 The highest one had a solar panel on it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Near the summit of White Rocks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At first, SPHP was a bit concerned\u00a0that it wasn’t even possible to get safely up to the actual summit.\u00a0 Fortunately, there was one reasonably safe route up, provided one made good careful use of the available handholds and didn’t rush things.\u00a0 Lupe had no problem leaping up the rocks to the top, and then peering over to see what was keeping SPHP.\u00a0 Soon SPHP joined Lupe at the summit.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe on the summit of White Rocks. Bear Butte visible out E on the horizon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking down on Deadwood from White Rocks. Snowy Deer Mountain (center left) and Terry Peak (center right) in the distance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There was a nice view of the W end of Deadwood.\u00a0 A little farther off in the general direction of Deer Mountain, some of the buildings of the old Homestake gold mine could be seen.\u00a0 Still snowy Terry Peak<\/a><\/span> (7,064 ft.)<\/span><\/strong> and Deer Mountain<\/a><\/span> (6,652 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>, both downhill ski resorts, were farther W.\u00a0 The nearby hills to the E and S were all barren, having burned in\u00a0the 10,771 acre\u00a0intense Grizzly Gulch fire back in June, 2002.\u00a0 Bear Butte<\/a><\/span> (4,422 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0was visible to the E out on the plains.<\/p>\n

\"Grizzly<\/a>
Looking S\u00a0from White Rocks towards Grizzly Gulch fire burn area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A view to the E of the Grizzly Gulch burn area from White Rocks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once done at the summit, Lupe sniffed and explored around the other rock outcroppings for a little bit before heading S along a ridge that soon led her to the burn area.\u00a0 There Lupe and SPHP followed some jeep trails to lose elevation hoping to get back down to street level in town without having to go down a steep slope.\u00a0 This was partially successful, but the jeep trail eventually ended at a big power line.\u00a0 From there the rest of the way down was a steep open slope.\u00a0 Lupe wound up at the dead end of a short street where there was a little creek flowing out of a big pipe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Exploring more of the White Rocks area near the summit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupe had to walk a few blocks in town to get back to the G6 at the little park.\u00a0 The temperature hadn’t changed, it was still 60 degrees out, but by now it was 12:07 PM.\u00a0 Her first peakbagging task of the day, to climb White Rocks, was now out of the way.\u00a0 The next goal was to climb Mt. Roosevelt.\u00a0 Lupe got to enjoy the luxury of a ride in the G6 with the windows partially rolled down so she could sniff the air while heading for Mt. Roosevelt<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(5,680 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
This little red car was high-centered in the snow and abandoned on the road to Mt. Roosevelt. Lupe & SPHP proceeded on paw and foot from here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mt. Roosevelt is just a couple miles NNW of Deadwood and 2.5 miles W of Hwy 85 via Mt. Roosevelt Road.\u00a0 About 2 miles from Hwy 85 a little red car was high-centered and abandoned on the road.\u00a0 It was stuck in the only big patch of snow along the whole road.\u00a0 SPHP just parked the G6 at a\u00a0small turn off just before the red car instead of attempting to drive through the snow.\u00a0 Later on it was clear that at least high clearance vehicles weren’t having any trouble getting through.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe checks out the view to the S over the embankment near Mt. Roosevelt Road. Pillar Peak (center) and Bear Den Mountain (right) just visible on the horizon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupe left the G6 at 12:27 PM (59 \u00b0F) to start the trek to Mt. Roosevelt.\u00a0 Before starting up the road past the little red car, though, Lupe went up a short barren embankment to the S which gave her a view back in the general direction of Deadwood.\u00a0 While not much of Deadwood was seen, Lupe did catch a glimpse of Pillar Peak<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(5,469 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0and Bear Den Mountain<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(5,642 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0where she had been a week ago on Expedition No. 122<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 She then went back to the road and trotted on past the little red car on her way to Mt. Roosevelt.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe on the trail to the summit of Mt. Roosevelt. Snowy Terry Peak (center) and Deer Mountain (left) in the distance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Friendship Tower on Mt. Roosevelt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Near the summit of Mt. Roosevelt is a picnic ground.\u00a0 From there the rest of the way to the top is via a maintained foot trail.\u00a0 At the top of Mt. Roosevelt is a 31 foot tall stone tower, known as The Friendship Tower.\u00a0 It was built in 1919 through the efforts of Seth Bullock to commemorate the life and death of his personal friend Theodore Roosevelt.\u00a0 Lupe climbed the narrow steep winding stairway to get up to the top of The Friendship Tower.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe up at the top of The Friendship Tower on Mt. Roosevelt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The view N from the top of The Friendship Tower on Mt. Roosevelt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Lupe at the top of the stairs to The Friendship Tower on Mt. Roosevelt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By 1:39 PM (still 59 \u00b0F), Lupe was back at the G6.\u00a0 Only one of her 3 peakbagging goals for the day remained – Crow Peak<\/a><\/span> (5,787 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>, located about 5 miles WSW of Spearfish, SD.\u00a0 Lupe was in for a longer ride to get to Crow Peak.\u00a0 SPHP even stopped briefly in Spearfish to pick up a Subway sandwich to bring along.<\/p>\n

\"Crow<\/a>
Crow Peak as seen from I-90 near Spearfish, SD.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is a good maintained trail up to the summit of Crow Peak from a trailhead located along Higgins Gulch Road (USFS Road No. 214).\u00a0 (To find Higgins Gulch Road turn W\u00a0on Hillsview Road at the Burger King on N. Main Street in Spearfish.\u00a0 Follow it all the way W to the hills. \u00a0Higgins Gulch Road is on the left where Hillsview starts to turn N.)\u00a0 At the trailhead, there isn’t any sign visible from the road.\u00a0 There is just a big flat open parking area.\u00a0 The trailhead sign is 50 feet in along the trail hidden in the trees.<\/p>\n

SPHP was surprised to find the Crow Peak\u00a0trailhead parking lot virtually full.\u00a0 Lupe was destined to meet quite a few people and dogs on the Crow Peak trail.\u00a0 The 3.5 mile trail was pretty much a steady moderately paced climb all the way with only a few short downhill stretches.\u00a0 The last 1.5 miles past the spur trail to Beaver Ridge were the steepest with lots of long switchbacks.\u00a0 There were some very nice views to the WNW towards Warren Peaks<\/a><\/span> (6,650 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0in the Bear Lodge Mountains N of Sundance, WY on the higher switchbacks.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe reaches the summit of Crow Peak. Terry Peak (center) in the distance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the summit of Crow Peak was a wooden sign showing the elevation of 5,760 feet.\u00a0 There were great views of the city of Spearfish and far out onto the prairie to the N and E.\u00a0 Bear Butte could be seen, but looked far away.\u00a0 To the S, Terry Peak dominated.\u00a0 Forest blocked the view to the W.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP spent quite a long time up at the summit.\u00a0 People came and went.\u00a0 Even a few little kids made it.\u00a0 Lupe shared the Subway sandwich with SPHP.\u00a0 The sandwich was a sloppy, tasty mess.\u00a0 (Note to Self: Don’t have them put any dressings or sauces\u00a0on a sandwich you intend to pack up a mountain.)\u00a0 Lupe even got in a little nap while SPHP wasted some time contemplating the world below.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe on Crow Peak 3-21-15. Bear Butte far away on the horizon (center).\u00a0 Spearfish, SD is at the base of the forested hills on the left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the way down, SPHP decided to take a look at Beaver Ridge, but did not wait until coming to the spur trail to go looking for it.\u00a0 Lupe wound up on a high narrow ridge with some tall thin limestone walls along the spine of it.\u00a0 This was not Beaver Ridge, which SPHP later realized was farther SW.\u00a0 The high ridge ended and Lupe had to head steeply back down into a valley.\u00a0 There Lupe and SPHP headed S and soon came to the main trail right where the intersection with the 0.5 mile Beaver Ridge spur trail was.<\/p>\n

However, by now SPHP had lost so much time wandering around on the high ridge that wasn’t Beaver Ridge, it was probably best not to wander too far away from the main trail.\u00a0 It was going to get dark.\u00a0 SPHP decided not to go to Beaver Ridge.\u00a0 The trail heading in that direction looked pretty faint. \u00a0Instead SPHP picked up some trash around the trail junction, while Lupe sniffed around in the forest.\u00a0 Even without going to Beaver Ridge, it was getting pretty dark by the time Lupe\u00a0arrived back at the G6 at 7:49 PM\u00a0 (47 \u00b0F).<\/p>\n

It had been an odd, but successful, Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 123.\u00a0 Lupe achieved all 3 peakbagging goals, had several rides and rests in the G6, and\u00a0had seen\u00a0lots of people and sniffed with lots of other dogs.\u00a0\u00a0Barely visible in the growing darkness, she\u00a0went wading down\u00a0in the little creek across Higgins Gulch Road from the trailhead parking lot.\u00a0 There she\u00a0got a big drink of cold water.\u00a0 A couple minutes later she hopped into the G6 for the ride home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lupe wishes you happy adventuring from Crow Peak!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Next Black Hills Expedition<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prior Black Hills Expedition<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more Lupe adventures?\u00a0\u00a0Choose\u00a0from\u00a0Lupe’s Black Hills Expeditions Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span> or Master Adventure Index<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0Or subscribe free\u00a0to\u00a0new Lupe adventures<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lupe was destined to have a bit of a different excursion this beautiful, sunny and unseasonably warm Saturday in March.\u00a0 SPHP had decided she should go do a bit of peakbagging in the northern Black Hills and hit 3 different peaks she’d never climbed before.\u00a0 The 3 peaks were scattered far enough apart so Lupe … Continue reading Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 123: White Rocks, Mt. Roosevelt & Crow Peak (3-21-15)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[105,9,106,63,104,64,304,62],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-hills","tag-american-dingo","tag-black-hills-expeditions","tag-carolina-dog","tag-crow-peak","tag-lupe","tag-mt-roosevelt","tag-south-dakota","tag-white-rocks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/P1060027.jpg?fit=1651%2C1238&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22539,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/22539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}