07.13.07
South Dakota Road trip! Day 3
We left Custer and headed up 89 past our previous campsite back to the park. We headed to the switchbacks to climb Picture Rock. Bela led and I was to follow him. It was rated 5.5, but that included an evil off-width crack. I really don’t believe that it was a 5 and i admit i did a bit of aiding to get up that short first 10 feet (hey Bela told me to haha!). The rest of the climb was pretty cool with more excellent friction, although the last 20′ were runout and exposed. It was hard to commit to the last section, but well worth the view once we topped out.
The view of the valley was very impressive and we realized why the climb had gotten the name. The Totem Pole spire (5.10) was nearby as well as a few other climbs. Our climb provided an excellent vantage point to all of the Switchback climbs as well as the Ten Pins area. We found what we thought was a cache up top, but it turned out to be a climbing register from as early as the 1980s. We also spotted another one on the next spire over. I found out later that it is somewhat typical of the area to use pvc piping, tho ours was a glass jar duck-taped.
We enjoyed our time up top. The wind was blowing, but the sky was clear. I took some photos with my good camera and we waved at tourists on the road below. One of them stopped to show us the pics we took after we had rappelled down – we were pretty tiny.
We decided to head back to the Hitching Post from the day before to enjoy the climb again. We enjoyed it just as much the second time and got much better pictures. It was getting quite toasty again, so we headed back to Sylvan Lake for lunch and shopping. Afterwards, we went swimming. We braved the chilly water to warm up again on one of the rocks out in the lake. A few kids were jumping in from higher ones, but we opted to stay on firm ground and just watch the little kids kill the minnows by catching them and then holding them out of the water to show mom and dad. We sat on the beach for a bit then decided to walk around the lake.
I had brought the gps with me so we enjoyed the view – it really is a beautiful lake with rocky shores- as we hiked to a new trail. The trail led us to another climbing area and closer to the cache. We ended up having to bushwhack our way to the more remote climbing area known as “Middle Earth” where the cache was located. Found it pretty quick and ended up bushwhacking our way back to the trail and in turn back to the car.
We decided to leave the Needles behind us and head to Keystone and the Mt. Rushmore area in hopes of doing some climbs there. We thought we might stay in another hotel. We started the search once again, but this time we were a little worried. In the first hotel i overheard a man talking about the fireworks the next night and the 25,000 people expected to show up- all by 10am! Many of the rooms left were over $250, but we lucked out once again and found a cheaper room at the Travelodge – and we even had a view of Mt. Rushmore if we stood on our deck!
Now that we had our room, I convinced bela to take me on a drive down the Iron Mountain Highway. I’d read about these “pigtail bridges” where the road turns and passes over itself, like a corkscrew. The drive was really fun with windy roads, in places that even split into 1 lane roads and a few tunnels that framed Mt. Rushmore. Mostly I remember Bela driving like a maniac while i was hanging out the window trying to get cool shots. (he claims it was to lose anyone who was following too closely, i think he just liked driving fast).
We got back to town and enjoyed a mexican dinner then a dip in the pool and hot tub. Another fun-filled day!