{"id":546,"date":"2015-04-07T08:40:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T14:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=546"},"modified":"2020-09-21T20:00:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T02:00:28","slug":"black-hills-sd-expedition-no-125-atlantic-hill-signal-hill-elk-benchmark-4-4-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=546","title":{"rendered":"Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 125 – Atlantic Hill, Signal Hill & Elk Benchmark (4-4-15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

To start off this week’s peakbagging expedition, SPHP parked the G6 at 9:58 AM near the intersection of County Road No. 284 and USFS Road No. 284.1E, a point about 1.25 miles SSW of Lupe’s first goal of the day, Atlantic Hill<\/a><\/span> (6,393 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Except for a\u00a0few\u00a0high thin\u00a0clouds, the skies were clear.\u00a0 It was a lovely 44\u00b0F\u00a0out with a cool light N breeze.\u00a0 Lupe was excited and ready to go!<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe about to start for Atlantic Hill seen in the background.\u00a0 She was ready for action, although looking into the sun made her squint.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instead of heading towards Atlantic Hill, USFS Road No. 284.1E first\u00a0took Lupe W for half a mile up a ravine before turning back to the NE.\u00a0 As 284.1E wound around to the NE it slowly lost the elevation Lupe had just gained.\u00a0 The area Lupe was traveling through was nearly all forested, with a mix of ponderosa pines and aspens.\u00a0 There were interesting rock outcroppings on the hillsides that tended to be anywhere from a few feet to 10 – 15 feet tall.<\/p>\n

\"Getting<\/a>
Getting closer to Atlantic Hill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Lupe approached Atlantic Hill, she left USFS Road No. 284.1E and headed directly through the forest.\u00a0 She soon came to open ground down in a valley where there was a small creek, just a foot or so wide, but with marshy ground along it.\u00a0 This was Ruby Creek, and it had surprisingly good flow for its size.\u00a0 Set against a rock wall was a small pond with a few ducks on it that flew off as Lupe approached.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The better to lick you with, my dear!\u00a0 A big-tongued Lupe near the rock wall pond in Ruby Creek valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once across the little Ruby Creek valley, Lupe headed into the forest and started the climb up Atlantic Hill.\u00a0 After gaining a bit of elevation, SPHP looked back and saw two more ponds back down in Ruby Creek valley, one upstream and one downstream from the pond next to the rock wall.<\/p>\n

\"Part<\/a>
Part way up Atlantic Hill was this view to the W of Peak 6740<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, the high ridge on the horizon at center left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A typical rock outcropping seen while climbing Atlantic Hill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Atlantic Hill was pretty easy to climb.\u00a0 There were quite a few rock outcroppings to work around on the way up and they were bigger than the ones along USFS Road No. 284.1E had been.\u00a0 The easiest path up was to avoid getting up on the rocks, and just keep heading up through the forest between the rocky spines of the mountain.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe near the S high point on Atlantic Hill. The best views were toward Crazy Horse<\/a><\/span><\/strong> to the NE (the whitish rock up at center left).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The view to the E from Atlantic Hill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupe reached a small saddle area between high points near the top of the hill.\u00a0 First she went to the S high point to check things out from there.\u00a0 Then she went to the N high point,\u00a0and a short climb brought her up to\u00a0the true summit of Atlantic Hill.\u00a0 The views at the high points were mainly toward the E.\u00a0 The most interesting thing to be seen was Thunderhead Mountain<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0(6,567 ft.)<\/strong><\/span> where the carving of Crazy Horse<\/a><\/strong><\/span> is located, about 4 miles to the ENE.\u00a0 Although there had been views to the N and W at various places on the climb up, the forest blocked those views near the top.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe reaches the summit of Atlantic Hill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking back at the summit of Atlantic Hill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupe had some water and a little Taste of the Wild at the summit.\u00a0 After a short rest break, SPHP led her to the N going down the mountain.\u00a0\u00a0A fairly steep slope brought\u00a0Lupe down to a saddle connecting Atlantic Hill to a rocky sub-peak which was perhaps 100 feet higher than the saddle area.\u00a0 There Lupe turned W and headed down a less steep and mostly grassy draw with scattered trees.\u00a0 A couple of cabins with blue roofs came into view to the NW, but Lupe reached a dirt road before she got too close to the cabins.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At the Atlantic Hill N saddle looking towards Crazy Horse through the aspens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since Lupe had gone down Atlantic Hill to the N of where she had climbed it, SPHP led her S along the dirt road until it ended.\u00a0 Then Lupe headed the rest of the way down into Ruby Creek valley, which she entered just S of the northernmost pond.\u00a0 There were fences on both the E and W sides of the valley here, so this may have been private land.\u00a0 Lupe hurried across it and headed W back up into the trees.\u00a0 Soon she found USFS Road No. 284.1E again, which she followed back to the G6, arriving at 1:42 PM.\u00a0 It was now 56\u00b0F out.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The N pond in Ruby Creek valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupe and SPHP headed W on County Road No. 284 towards the next peakbagging objective – Signal Hill.\u00a0 The hike to Signal Hill began at the intersection of No. 284 with USFS Road No. 747.\u00a0 At the start of No. 747, Summit Hill was already in view a very short distance to the S.\u00a0\u00a0It was an easy stroll with\u00a0little elevation gain.<\/p>\n

Signal Hill<\/a><\/span> (6,483 ft.)<\/span><\/strong> apparently used to have a lookout tower on it.\u00a0\u00a0However, the whole area had burned in the 83,000 acre Jasper fire back in August, 2000.\u00a0 SPHP doesn’t know if the lookout tower burned in that fire or was torn down before then.\u00a0 Lupe posed for a photo sitting on what little was left of the foundation for whatever had been there long ago.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The view of Signal Hill from the N close to where the G6 was parked.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Not<\/a>
Not much left of the old lookout tower foundation on Signal Hill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The\u00a0desolate\u00a0view from Signal Hill towards Elk Mountain (long ridge on the horizon) on the Wyoming\/South Dakota border.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Signal Hill felt quite forlorn and desolate.\u00a0 A cool breeze was blowing out of the W.\u00a0 Being totally exposed, there were views in all directions, but the best view was off to the SW toward the high ridge near the Wyoming border\u00a0which was Elk Mountain\u00a012-13 miles away.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP spent a few minutes looking around for a USGS benchmark, but found none.\u00a0 Lupe was back to the G6 by 3:08 PM, just 29 minutes after leaving it.\u00a0 The temperature was 51\u00b0F.<\/p>\n

Lupe had now completed her two main peakbagging goals of the day – Atlantic Hill and Signal Hill, but there was still plenty of daylight left.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP headed S on USFS Road No. 282 reaching US Hwy 16 just W of Jewel Cave National Monument.\u00a0 SPHP turned E on Hwy 16 and drove to the E side of the park.\u00a0 SPHP was\u00a0thinking Lupe might be able to go to the Lithograph Canyon Hillside<\/a><\/span> (5,820\u00a0ft.)<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0where the highest point in Jewel Cave National\u00a0Monument is located just 0.33 mile N of Hwy 16 at the NE corner of the park.<\/p>\n

There were signs along Hwy 16 at the E boundary of Jewel Cave National Monument, but there was no place to park the G6 anywhere close.\u00a0 Furthermore, the terrain to the N of the Hwy was very steep.\u00a0 SPHP began to reconsider.\u00a0 After a couple more passes back and forth along Hwy 16, SPHP decided it might be hard to find the right spot on the Lithograph Canyon Hillside that is the true NE corner and high point of Jewel Cave National Monument without doing some more research before making the attempt.<\/p>\n

A new idea came to SPHP, which was to drive W towards\u00a0Elk Mountain\u00a0on the border with Wyoming.\u00a0 So Lithograph Canyon Hillside was left behind and Lupe headed W on Hwy 16.\u00a0 Just a mile\u00a0and a half NE of Elk Mountain<\/a><\/span> (5,669 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>, SPHP turned the G6 S on Dewey Road, County Road No. 769.\u00a0 Lupe barked at cows from the G6 for a good deal of the 3 miles S to a right turn to the W on Elk Mountain Road (No. 123).\u00a0 There were longhorn cattle loose on the road at this point, which sent Lupe into a joyful barking frenzy.<\/p>\n

No. 123 climbed slowly at first and then steeply up the Elk Mountain ridge.\u00a0 The road was narrow, but not too rough, so the G6 had no problem reaching the top of the ridge.\u00a0 At a junction there, SPHP turned N on USFS Road No. 118 looking for a place to park.\u00a0 At first there wasn’t anywhere to park, but after a mile or so there was a side road that went W or NW off No. 118.\u00a0 Next to the side road was a nice open grassy level spot.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP continued on paw and foot from here.\u00a0 (It was by choice SPHP stopped here, there was no reason SPHP couldn’t have driven along No. 118 all the way to the lookout tower since the road was in decent shape all the way.)<\/p>\n

About 100 feet along No. 118, Lupe came to a new yellow sign with red lettering and a red pheasant logo on it marking the South Dakota border.\u00a0 Apparently the G6 was parked just into Wyoming.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP continued N for about 0.25 mile, reaching the end of the forest and start of the big burn area that encompasses all of the N end of Elk Mountain.\u00a0 It was still\u00a0another 2.5 to\u00a03 miles to the lookout tower along the road.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A look back to the S along the long E side of\u00a0Elk Mountain ridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The view N towards the Elk Mountain lookout tower, faintly seen above Lupe’s head,\u00a0shortly after Lupe left the forested portion of the ridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Getting<\/a>
Getting closer. Hopefully it will rain soon. Elk Mountain would look better green.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although Elk Mountain itself\u00a0is now rather ugly and barren, the forest fire had certainly opened up the views.\u00a0 All the way to the lookout tower there was either a great view to the W into Wyoming or to the E into South Dakota.\u00a0 At the very highest parts of this broad ridge there were wonderful views in both directions.\u00a0 Lupe had a great time sniffing around and exploring.\u00a0 She also seemed to enjoy peering over at the views from the edges of some of the cliffs.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At the base of the lookout tower, but not quite the highest point on Elk Mountain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The view towards the NW from close to the lookout tower. The high point in the distance is the true summit and where there are 2 USGS survey benchmarks on the rocks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Elk Mountain lookout tower stands at the NE end of the ridge.\u00a0 No one was around when Lupe arrived.\u00a0 In fact, Lupe met no one at all during her entire time on Elk Mountain.\u00a0 There was a single picnic table at the base of the lookout tower.\u00a0 The lookout tower was high, but not quite on the highest ground on the mountain.\u00a0\u00a0In view nearby\u00a0to the W was a somewhat higher spot.\u00a0 Farther away at the NW corner of the ridge is the true summit of Elk Mountain where two\u00a0USGS benchmarks are located up on\u00a0rocks just a few feet from\u00a0each other.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lupe on the magnificently colored boulder on top of the W high point not far from the lookout tower.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A look E\u00a0back at the lookout tower from near the magnificently colored boulder.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After prowling around at the base of the lookout tower for a few minutes and\u00a0getting\u00a0a couple of\u00a0pictures taken, Lupe headed over to the higher ground to the W.\u00a0 She was soon there.\u00a0 A\u00a0magnificently colored boulder about\u00a05 or 6 feet tall was at the very top.\u00a0\u00a0SPHP helped Lupe up onto it for a photo.\u00a0 From there SPHP and Lupe went over to the true summit at\u00a0the NW corner of Elk Mountain and found the two USGS benchmarks.\u00a0 Lupe had now been to all three of the highest points on Elk Mountain.\u00a0 SPHP agreed with the maps that the highest spot was at the Elk Benchmarks, although the\u00a0magnificently colored rock not far W of the lookout tower was a very close 2nd.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe at the Elk Mountain benchmark. The lookout tower can be seen to the SE. The magnificently colored rock is the highest black dot on the high ground near the right of the photo.\u00a0 Just to the left of Lupe is one of the two USGS benchmarks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most interesting views on Elk Mountain\u00a0were off to the NW from the Elk Benchmarks towards Newcastle, WY where the mountains looked more rugged than the high flat ridges to the E and SE.\u00a0 Some fairly deep canyons could also be seen to the N.\u00a0 Far away to the SSW, however, so barely visible that SPHP frequently had to stop and just stare in order to see it, was the top of Laramie Peak<\/a><\/span> (10,272 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 .\u00a0 A few of the mountain tops S of I-25 between Douglas and Casper, WY could be just\u00a0faintly seen too.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The best view from Elk Mountain was this one to the NW towards Newcastle, WY. Lupe is near the Elk Mountain benchmarks in this photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the way back to the G6,\u00a0SPHP was hoping a nice\u00a0sunset would develop.\u00a0 However,\u00a0although there was some open sky to the SW, most of the sky had clouded up by now.\u00a0 The sun sank slowly down just 5 degrees N of the clear skies.\u00a0 There were a few small breaks in the clouds in that direction, but despite a few moments of promise, a colorful sunset never really developed.\u00a0 Too bad, as\u00a0Elk Mountain\u00a0would have provided a\u00a0dramatic vantage point.<\/p>\n

The sun was still up, but\u00a0must have been very low on the horizon and\u00a0obscured by clouds when Lupe reached the G6 at 7:36 PM.\u00a0 It was still 50\u00b0F.\u00a0 Lupe had reached the summits of three new mountains during the day.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP both agreed that the most fun of all had been Elk Mountain.\u00a0\u00a0SPHP loved the\u00a0solitude, easy\u00a0nearly level ground,\u00a0and splendid views.\u00a0 Lupe loved racing\u00a0over the open ground\u00a0sniffing and exploring through the tall grass and around the\u00a0many interesting\u00a0rocks.<\/p>\n

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

Next Black Hills Adventure<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prior Black Hills Adventure<\/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<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0Or subscribe free\u00a0to\u00a0new Lupe adventures<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To start off this week’s peakbagging expedition, SPHP parked the G6 at 9:58 AM near the intersection of County Road No. 284 and USFS Road No. 284.1E, a point about 1.25 miles SSW of Lupe’s first goal of the day, Atlantic Hill (6,393 ft.).\u00a0\u00a0Except for a\u00a0few\u00a0high thin\u00a0clouds, the skies were clear.\u00a0 It was a lovely … Continue reading Black Hills, SD Expedition No. 125 – Atlantic Hill, Signal Hill & Elk Benchmark (4-4-15)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":570,"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":[105,98,9,106,100,104,99,304],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-hills","tag-american-dingo","tag-atlantic-hill","tag-black-hills-expeditions","tag-carolina-dog","tag-elk-benchmark","tag-lupe","tag-signal-hill","tag-south-dakota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P1060118.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\/546","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=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22309,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions\/22309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}