The Road Less Traveled (aka Off the Beaten Path)

We have had all kinds of adventures since we arrived in Custer, some of them on roads less traveled.  On Saturday of last week, Rick and Linda acted as tour guides and took us on a four-wheeling adventure to some of their favorite road-less-traveled spots near Custer.

We headed out of the RV park on a brilliant blue-sky day, down gravel roads, past deep blue ponds,

riders and their horses,

coyotes on the prowl (practically in someone’s front yard!),

and over recently-worked (very dusty!) logging roads.

We passed through ponderosa pine forests devastated by the mountain pine beetle. 

This nasty, rice-kernel sized bug is native to the Black Hills and proliferates when forests become overgrown and the trees are too close together.  Periodic outbreaks have been recorded in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming since these areas were settled in the late 1800s.  Thankfully, the current outbreak seems to have slowed or stopped and last year was declared "over" by officials of the Black Hills National Forest.  

While the standing dead trees are unsightly, once they have fallen or been cut and removed, the more open forests are beautiful.  We traveled almost 50 miles over all kinds of trails,

and past different vistas.

At noon we stopped for a picnic. 

Across the road was a spectacular rock outcrop that overlooked miles and miles of Black Hills forests.

  

Alongside a meadow we found the ruins of something….a dugout?… a mine shaft?…We don’t know.

It was a day filled with breathtaking scenery, good friends and fellowship, as well as roads we hope to travel again.  Memories to treasure!